Text 184] The Lord Instructs Srila Rapa Gosvami 363

to render some service and thus become favored by the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. A devotee in the santa-rati is not very much willing to render service to
the Lord, but a devotee in the dasya-rati voluntarily wants to render service. Due
to this attitude, the devotee in the dasya-rati realizes the Supreme Personality of
Godhead more fully than a devotee in the santa-rati. He considers the Lord to be a
worshipable object, and this means that his attachment for the Lord increases. On
the dasya-rati platform a devotee is attached to rendering service to the Lord, and
he is detached from material activities. The santa-rati is neither material nor
spiritual, but the dasya-ratiis actually on the spiritual platform. There is no attach-
ment for material things on the spiritual platform. A devotee in dasya-rati has no
attachment for anything but Krsna’s service.
Sakhya-rati is described in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (2.5.30) as follows:

ye syus tulya mukundasya
te sakhayah satam matah

samyad visrambha-rdpaisam
ratih sakhyam ihocyate

According to the opinion of advanced devotees and learned scholars, a devotee
in sakhya-rati feels equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is a rela-
tionship in friendship. Due to having a friendly relationship with the Lord, not only
is one free from material attachment, but one believes in equal dealings with the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is called sakhya-rati. The sakhya-rati devo-
tee is so advanced that he treats the Lord on an equal level and even exchanges
joking words. Although one is never equal to the Supreme Personality of God-
head, the sakhya-rati devotee feels equal to the Lord, and he does not feel guilty
because of this. Actually it is offensive to consider oneself equal to the Lord. The
Mayavadis consider themselves equal to the Lord, but such feelings entail
bereavement because they are material. The sakhya-rati, however, is a feeling ex-
perienced in the mind by a pure devotee, and he is eternally related with the
Supreme Personality of Godhead in that feeling.
Vatsalya-rati is described as follows in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (2.5.33):

guravo ye harer asya
te pujya iti visrutah
anugrahamayi tesam
ratir vatsalyam ucyate
idam lalana-bhavydasis
cibuka-sparsanadi-krt

When a living entity is situated on the platform of vatsalya-rati, he thinks of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead in His childhood feature. In this feature, the Lord
