'What is too hard for the Lord's servants to gain, as the very listening to His name purifies all creatures?'"
The Master remarked, "It is so, but give a still deeper cause." The Ray replied, "Love as for a comrade is the highest form of devotion. Witness Shukdev's words to Parikshit, in the Bhágabat, X. xii. 10:
'God is known to the good as the consciousness of divine pleasure (brahma-sukhánubhuti), and to His servants as the Supreme Object of Adoration. That such a God played with the deluded cow-boys in the garb of a human child, was due to their excessive merit.'"
The Master said, "This too is good. Mention a higher one still." The Ray went on, "The highest devotion is love as for a child. Witness the following verses of the Bhágabat:
'Shukdev! what high-class meritorious deeds did Nanda perform, and what did the blessed Yashoda do that she suckled the Divine Being?" (X. viii. 36).
'The bliss that the cowherd's wife Yashodá derived from her Saviour-son was never gained by Brahma, or Shiva, or even by Lakshmi though clasped to His person.' (X. ix. 15.)
The Master said, "This is good, no doubt. But mention a higher still." The Ray replied, "Passion as for a lover is the highest form of devotion. Witness the following verses of the Bhágabat:
'Verily the favour shown by the Supreme Being to the fair ones of Brindában, when in the rasa sport He clasped them round the neck with His arms, was not enjoyed even by Lakshmi, who is held to His heart, nor by the heavenly nymphs though blooming and odorous like the lotus; not to speak of other women.' (X. xlvii. 53)
The Ray continued, "Many are the means of attaining to Krishna, and there are degrees of such attainment. By whichever of these means a man is inspired, it appears as the highest to him. It is only when we judge from a position of detachment that we can discriminate them as good, better, and best.
"The preceding five passions are arranged in the order of their upward development. With the increase of quality there is an increase of deliciousness at each step. The shánta passion attains its maturity in the dásya, the dásya in the sákhya, the sákhya in the bátsalya, and all of these four are concentrated in the mádhura, just as the properties of the four elements, viz., sky, air, &c. increase in an advancing order and are all united in the fifth element, the Earth. The full attainment of Krishna results from this last passion of conjugal love (premá). The Bhágabat asserts that Krishna is a slave to devotion in the form of premá.