Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Madhya 23.51

'anubhāva' — smita, nṛtya, gītādi udbhāsvara

stambhādi — 'sāttvika' anubhāvera bhitara

SYNONYMS

anubhāva — subordinate ecstasy; smita — smiling; nṛtya — dancing; gīta-ādi — songs and so on; udbhāsvara — symptoms of bodily manifestation; stambha-ādi — being stunned and others; sāttvika — natural; anubhāvera bhitara — within the category of subordinate ecstasies.

TRANSLATION

"The subordinate ecstasies are smiling, dancing and singing, as well as different manifestations in the body. The natural ecstasies, such as being stunned, are considered among the subordinate ecstasies [anubhāva].

PURPORT

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (2.1.14), vibhāva is described as follows:

tatra jñeyā vibhāvās tu raty-āsvādana-hetavaḥ

te dvidhālambanā eke tathaivoddīpanāḥ pare

"The cause bringing about the tasting of love for Kṛṣṇa is called vibhāva. Vibhāva is divided into two categories — ālambana (support) and uddīpana (awakening)."

In the Agni Purāṇa it is stated:

vibhāvyate hi raty-ādir yatra yena vibhāvyate

vibhāvo nāma sa dvedhālambanoddīpanātmakaḥ

"That which causes love for Kṛṣṇa to appear is called vibhāva. That has two divisions — ālambana (in which love appears) and uddīpana (by which love appears)."

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (2.1.16), the following is stated about ālambana:

kṛṣṇaś ca kṛṣṇa-bhaktāś ca budhair ālambanā matāḥ

raty-āder viṣayatvena tathādhāratayāpi ca

"The object of love is Kṛṣṇa, and the container of that love is the devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Learned scholars call them ālambana — the foundations." Similarly, uddīpana is described as follows:

uddīpanās tu te proktā bhāvam uddīpayanti ye

te tu śrī-kṛṣṇa-candrasya guṇāś ceṣṭāḥ prasādhanam

"Those things which awaken ecstatic love are called uddīpana. Mainly this awakening is made possible by the qualities and activities of Kṛṣṇa, as well as by His mode of decoration and the way His hair is arranged." (B.r.s. 2.1.301) The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (2.1.302) also gives the following further examples of uddīpana:

smitāńga-saurabhe vaḿśa-śṛńga-nūpura-kambavaḥ

padāńka-kṣetra-tulasī-bhakta-tad-vāsarādayaḥ

"Kṛṣṇa's smile, the fragrance of His transcendental body, His flute, bugle, ankle bells and conchshell, the marks on His feet, His place of residence, His favorite plant [tulasī], His devotees, and the observance of fasts and vows connected to His devotion all awaken the symptoms of ecstatic love."

The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (2.2.1) describes anubhāva as follows:

anubhāvās tu citta-stha-bhāvānām avabodhakāḥ

te bahir vikriyā prāyāḥ proktā udbhāsvarākhyayā

"The many external ecstatic symptoms, or bodily transformations which indicate ecstatic emotions in the mind and which are also called udbhāsvara, are the anubhāvas, or subordinate ecstatic expressions of love." Some of these symptoms are dancing, falling down and rolling on the ground, singing and crying very loudly, bodily contortions, loud vibrations, yawning, deep breathing, disregard for others, the frothing of saliva, mad laughter, spitting, hiccups and other, similar symptoms. All these symptoms are divided into two divisions — śīta and kṣepaṇa. Singing, yawning and so on are called śīta. Dancing and bodily contortions are called kṣepaṇa.

In his Anubhāṣya, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura quotes the following verse from the Vedic literature describing udbhāsvara:

udbhāsante sva-dhāmnīti proktā udbhāsvarā budhaiḥ

nīvy-uttarīya-dhammilla-sraḿsanaḿ gātra-moṭanam

jṛmbhā ghrāṇasya phullatvaḿ niśvāsādyāś ca te matāḥ

"The ecstatic symptoms manifest in the external body of a person in ecstatic love are called udbhāsvara by learned scholars. Some of these are a slackening of the belt and a dropping of clothes and hair. Others are bodily contortions, yawning, a trembling of the front portion of the nostrils, heavy breathing, hiccupping and falling down and rolling on the ground. These are the external manifestations of emotional love." Stambha and other symptoms are described in Madhya-līlā 14.167.

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