Impetuses for Krsna’s Service 309

In the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, 38th Chapter, 5th verse,
Akrira says: “Because I am going to see Lord Krsna today, all symp-
toms of inauspiciousness have already been killed. My life is now suc-
cessful because I shall be able to offer my respects unto the lotus feet
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead!”

Another devotee in ecstatic reverential affection once said, ““When
will that glorious day in my life come when it will be possible for me
to go to the bank of the Yamuna and see Lord Sri Krsna playing
there as cowherd boy?”

When there is no diminishing, of this ecstatic love and when it is
freed from all kinds of doubt, that stage is called steady love for
Krsna. In this stage all expressions of unhappiness by the devotee are
called anubhava, or ecstatic loving symptoms.

The symptom of ecstatic affection with reverence felt by Bali
Maharaj is expressed as follows: ‘“‘My dear Lord, You have simultane-
ously punished me and showed me Your causeless mercy. My conclu-
sion is that when I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet I shall never
be disturbed in any condition of life. Whether You give me the op-
portunity to enjoy all the yogic perfections, or You put me into the
most abominable condition of hellish life, I shall never be disturbed.”

Krsna, Himself, after seeing Bali Maharaj, told Uddhava, “My dear
friend, how can I express the glorious characteristics of Bali Maharaj,
the son of Virocana? Although the king of the suras |demigods| was
cursed by this son of Virocana, and although I cheated him in my
incarnation as Vamana, taking away his dominions throughout the
universe, and although I still criticized him for not fulfilling his prom-
ise, I have just now seen him in his kingdom, and he feelingly ex-
pressed his love for me.”’*

When such a feeling of love becomes intensified, it is called affec-

* Bali was a king of the demons who waged war against the demigods and nearly
conquered the universe. When the demigods prayed for help, the Lord appeared
as Vamanadeva, a dwarf brahmana, and asked Bali for three paces of land. Bali
agreed, and Vamana covered all the worlds with His first two steps. Then He
demanded to know where His third pace was to be. Bali offered his own head
beneath the Lord’s foot and thus became a mahdajana, or great devotee.
