Text 24] Pure Devotional Service: The Change in Heart 165
rendering loving service to the Lord. }idhi-bhakti, or regulated devotional
service by the limbs of the body (namely the eyes, the ears, the nose,
the hands, the legs, as already explained hereinbefore), is now stressed
herein in relation to the mind, which is the impetus of all activities of the
limbs of the body. It isexpected by all means that by discharging regulated
devotional service one must manifest the change of heart. If there is no
such change, the heart must be considered as steel-framed, for it is not
melted even when there is chanting of the holy name of the Lord. We must
always remember that hearing and chanting are the basic principles of
discharging devotional duties, and if they are properly performed there
will follow the reactional ecstasy with signs of lears in the eyes and
standing of the hairs on the body. These are natural consequences and are
the preliminary symptoms of bhava stage, which occurs before one
reaches the perfectional stage of prema, love of Godhead.

If the reaction does not take place, even after continuous hearing and
chanting of the holy name of the Lord, it may be considered to be duc to
offenses only. That is the opinion of the Sandharbha. In the beginning of
chanting of the holy name of the Lord, if the devotee has not been very
careful about evading the ten kinds of offenses at the feet of the holy
name, certainly the reaction of feelings of separation will not be visible by
tears in the eyes and standing of the hair on end.

The bhava stage is manifested by eight transcendental symptoms, namely
stuntedness, perspiration, standing of hairs on end, failing in voice,
trembling, paleness of the body, tears in the eyes and finally trance. The
Nectar of Devotion, a summary study of Srila Ripa Gosvami’s Bhakti-
rasdmrta-sindhu, explains those symptoms and vividly describes other
transcendental developments, both in steady and accelerating manifesta-
tions.

Srila Vigvanatha Cakravarti Thakur has very critically discussed all these
bhava displays in connection with some unscrupulous neophyte’s imitating
the above symptoms for cheap appreciation. Not only Visvanatha
Cakravart? but also Srila Ripa Gosvami treated them very critically.
Sometimes all the above eight symptoms of ecstasy are imitated by the
mundane devotees (prakrta sahajiyas), but the pseudo symptoms are at
once detected when one sees the pseudo devotee addicted to so many
forbidden things. A person addicted to smoking, drinking or illegitimate
sex with women, even though decorated with the signs of a devotee, cannot
have all the above-mentioned ecstatic symptoms. But it is seen that some-
times they are willfully imitated, and for this reason Srila Vigvanatha
Cakravarti accuses the imitators of being stone-hearted men. They are even
