Laughing Ecstasy 366

mouth in a disfigured way, and upon seeing this all His friends stand-
ing there began to laugh very loudly.

Once a palmist came to the house of Nanda Maharaj, and Nanda
Maharaj asked him, “‘My dear sage, will you kindly check the hand of
my child, Krsna? Tell me how many years He will live and whether
He will become the master of thousands of cows.”’ Upon hearing this,
the palmist began to smile, and Nanda Maharaj asked him, “‘My dear
sir, why are you laughing, and why are you covering your face?”

In such a laughing ecstasy of love, Krsna or matters pertaining to
Krsna are the cause of the laughter. In such laughing devotional ser-
vice, there are symptoms of jubilation, laziness, concealed feelings and
similar other seemingly disturbing elements.

According to Srila Rupa Gosvamr’s calculation, laughter in ecstatic
love can be broken down into six divisions. These divisions, according
to different degrees of smiling, are call: in the Sanskrit language
smita, hasita, vihasita, avahasita, apahasila, and atihasita. These six
classes of smiling can be classified av :uajor and minor. The major
division includes smita, hasita and viliwsita smiling, and the minor
division includes avahasita, apahasita 11d atihasita smiling.

When one is smiling but his teeth are not visible, one can distinctly
mark a definite change in the eyes and in the cheeks. This is called
smita smiling. Once when Krsna was stealing yogurt, Jarati, the head-
mistress of the house, could detect His activities, and she was there-
fore coming very hurriedly to catch Him. At that time, Krsna became
very much afraid of Jarati and went to His elder brother Baladeva.
He said, “My dear brother, I have stolen yogurt! Just see—Jarati is
coming hurriedly to catch Me!” When Krsna was thus seeking the
shelter of Baladeva because He was being chased by Jarati, all the
great sages in the heavenly planets began to smile. This smiling is
called smita smiling.

Smiling in which the teeth are slightly visible is called hasita
smiling. One day Abhimanyu, the so-called husband of Radharani,
was returning home, and at that time he could not see that Krsna was
there in his house. Krsna immediately changed His dress to look ex-
actly like Abhimanyu and approached Abhimanyu’s mother, Jatila,
addressing her thus: ‘‘My dear Mother, I am your real son Abhimanyu,
but just see—Krsna, dressed up like me, is coming before you!”
