Aṣṭādaśa-cchanda, Vastra-haraṇa, 2

Aṣṭādaśa-cchaṅda, Vastra-haraṇa, 2
अष्टादश च्छंद वस्त्रहरण 

Chapter One

An introduction to Mañjarī-bhāva

yasya sphūrti-lavāṅkureṇa laghunāpy antar munīnāṁ manaḥ
spṛṣṭaṁ mokṣa-sukhād virajyati jhaṭity āsvādyamānād api
premṇas tasya mukunda sāhasitayā śaknotu kaḥ prārthane
bhūyāj janmani janmani pracayinī kintu spṛhāpy atra me

O Mukunda, giver of liberation! Who in the world is there with the courage
to pray for the gift of sacred love, of which the slightest manifestation,
when brushing against the minds of the great sages,
makes them forget the happiness of liberation?

My prayer therefore to you is this: that I should simply desire for such prema,
and that this desire should increase forever, in this world, birth after birth.

(Rūpa Gosvāmī, Aṣṭādaśa-cchanda, Vastra-haraṇa,2)

Even those self-satisfied sages who directly experience the happiness of liberation immediately become indifferent to that pleasure simply on coming into contact with the fractionally germinated seed of prema; what person in this world is so bold that he would pray for such wealth? I, therefore, always pray only that, wherever I should take birth, I may constantly develop the thirst and enthusiasm for attaining that great prize-that I should remain forgetful of all else and thirst for it in the way that a fish from its pond craves for a return to water, as a cātaka bird thirsts for the appearance of a cloud, or as the fabled cakora seeks the rays of the moon.

Brahmānanda is the name given to the joy found in the transcendentalist's realization of universal spiritual identity. This pleasure is so highly lauded by its proponents that it is said to make all worldly pleasure, even that of being an emperor or universal creator like Brahmā, appear completely insignificant. Yet this brahmānanda itself becomes an object of scorn for one who has attained the fortune of getting even the slightest scent of Kṛṣṇa-prema, or love for Kṛṣṇa. Prema is therefore the ultimate goal of life, or prayojana-tattva.