Types of Rati

Types of Rati and bhaktas

Samarta rati - gopi bhav

Sacred love is the essence of Kṛṣṇa's internal potency, known as the hlādinī or bliss-giving energy. This energy manifests in different types of devotees in four basic varieties known as servitorship, comradeship, guardianship and the sweetest affection known as "amorous love of the beginning of youth ."

This amorous love of the beginning of youth is called "sweet love" (madhurā rati) because it is the most relishable of the devotional sentiments.

Prema is of three types:

• common (sādhāraṇī rati),
• compromising (samañjasā rati), and
• competent (samarthā rati).

Of the three, the last is considered the most perfect. In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmin has described this competent love as kāma-rūpā bhakti or the devotion that has the form of amorous attraction:

sā kāma-rūpā sambhoga-tṛñṇāṁ yā nayati svatām |
yad asyāṁ kṛñṇa-saukhyārtham eva kevalam udyamaḥ ||
iyaṁ tu vraja-devīñu suprasiddhā virājate |
āsāṁ prema-viśeño'yaṁ prāptaḥ kām api mādhurīm ||
tat-tat-krīḍā-nidānatvāt kāma ity ucyate budhaiḥ ||
tathā ca tantre premaiva gopa-rāmāṇāṁ kāma ity agamāt prathām |
ity uddhavādayo'py etaṁ vāñchanti bhagavat-priyāḥ || BRS, 1.2.283-6.

"That devotion or love which makes the desire for amorous meeting submit to it and take on its own form, i.e. only for the purpose of Kṛṣṇa's pleasure, is known as kāma-rūpā bhakti. Where such devotion exists, all efforts are made only for His happiness and never for one's own pleasure or satisfaction, even though externally or superficially this desire for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure may appear like a desire for one's own amorous satisfaction.

Kāma-rūpā bhakti is widely known to exist only in the cowherd girls of Vrindavan. Learned persons have given the name of amorous attraction (kāma) to the love of the cowherd girls for Kṛṣṇa because, in the multifarious expressions of sweetness, such sports as embracing, kissing and other amorous activities like dancing. 

The love of the cowherd girls of Vrindavan is called "competent" (samarthā) because it has the power to control Kṛṣṇa, to make him who is the Supreme Lord ("capable of doing anything he pleases, or of not doing it, or of changing from one mode of action to another according to his whim") incapable of paying back the debt he feels to them. He himself admits to this in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.32.22.

na pāraye'haṁ niravadya-saṁyujāṁ sva-sādhu-kṛtyaṁ vibudhāyuñāpi vaḥ |
yām ābhajan durjara-geha-śṛṅkhalāḥ saṁvṛścya tad vaḥ pratiyātu sādhunā || 

I am completely unable, even if given a lifetime of the gods, to repay you your good deeds, for you have dedicated yourselves to me completely, breaking off the powerful chains that kept you bound to home and family Manjari svarupa nirupana
to worship me. You will therefore have to be satisfied with your good deeds alone.

Even great devotees like Uddhava adore the spirit of the cowherd girls because it transforms the essentially selfish amorous desire into pure devotional love or desire for the Supreme Lord's amorous enjoyment. These devotees desire to attain that level of devotion but remain forever unable." 

In "The Story of Gopāla" (Gopāla-campū) and "The Treatise of Sacred Love" (Prīti-sandarbha), Jīva Gosvāmin writes that the Lord gave Uddhava a position in his life in the spiritual world of Goloka, but even so, Uddhava was unable to obtain the form of a cowherd girl or the true identity of one. This does not mean that Uddhava's status is not extremely elevated.

According to the Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta (the larger "Nectar of the Lord's Devotee"), there are five kinds of devotees:

(1) the devotee in transcendental knowledge (jñāna-bhakta), such as Bharata Mahārāja,
(2) the pure devotee (śuddha-bhakta) like Ambarī ṣa Mahārāja,
(3) the devotee in sacred love (prema-bhakta) like Hanumān,
(4) the devotee entirely fixed in sacred love (prema-para-bhakta) like the five Pāṇḍava brothers, and
(5) the devotee completely absorbed in and moved by sacred love (premātura-bhakta) like the Yādavas, of whom the chief is Uddhava.

Each of these divisions is superior to the one preceding it.

jñāna-bhaktastu teṣv eke śuddha-bhaktāḥpare'pare |
prema-bhaktāḥ pare prema-parāḥ premāturāḥ pare ||
tāratamyavatām eñāṁ phale sāmyaṁ na yujyate |
tāratamyaṁ tu vaikuṇṭhe kathañcid ghaṭate na hi || (Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta2.1.16-17).

Nevertheless, even though Uddhava stands as superior to all the above-mentioned devotees, he cannot attain to the ultimate standard of devotional sentiment known as the mood of the cowherd girl (gopī-bhāva), as evidenced in Śrīmad Bhagavātam:

dṛṣṭvaivam-ādi gopīnāṁ  kṛṣṇāveśātma-viklavam
uddhavaḥ parama-prītas tā namasyann idaṁ jagau 57
etāḥ paraṁ tanu-bhṛto bhuvi gopa-vadhvo
 govinda eva nikhilātmani rūḍha-bhāvāḥ
vāñchanti yad bhava-bhiyo munayo vayaṁ ca
 kiṁ brahma-janmabhir ananta-kathā-rasasya 58

Seeing such an absorption of the gopis - dṛṣṭvā evam ādi gopīnām
in thoughts of Krișna - viklavam kṛṣṇa-āveśa
the soul of Uddhav was utmost enchanted by them - ātma uddhavaḥ parama prītaḥ tāḥ
and offered them respect through this song - namasyan idam jagau

Of all the embodied souls on the earth, these  - nikhila ātmani tanu bhuvi etāḥ
wives of the shepherds  obtained the supreme perfection - vadhvaḥ gopa bhṛtaḥ rūḍha param
because of their exclusive affection for Govind (Krișn) - bhāvāḥ eva govinde
which is wished by those who fear the material existence - yat vāñchanti bhiyaḥ bhava
and by wise people as us - munayaḥ vayam ca
What is the meaning of being born as Brahmaa - kim janmabhiḥ brahma
for the one who tasted the unlimited narrations about Him - rasasya ananta-kathā

nāyaṁ śriyo 'ṅga u nitānta-rateḥ prasādaḥ
 svar-yoṣitāṁ nalina-gandha-rucāṁ kuto 'nyāḥ
rāsotsave 'sya bhuja-daṇḍa-gṛhīta-kaṇṭha-
 labdhāśiṣāṁ ya udagād vraja-vallabhīnām 60
āsām aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāṁ
 vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām
yā dustyajaṁ sva-janam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā
 bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām 61

Oh, this utmost love and favour - u ayam nitānta-rateḥ prasādaḥ
shown in the Dance-Festival of the beloved from Vraja - rasa-utsave vraja-vallabhīnām
who attained the blessing and happiness - yaḥ labdha-āśiṣām śriyaḥ
of being embraced by the neck by His arms - gṛhīta kaṇṭha bhuja-daṇḍa asya
haven`t been obtained by the women from paradise - na udagāt yoṣitām svaḥ
whose limbs shine and have the aroma of the lotus - aṅge rucām gandha nalina
what to say of others - kutaḥ anyāḥ

May I become a shrub, a creeper or grass - aham syām kim api gulma-latā-oṣadhīnām
in Vrindavan, to enjoy the dust of their feet - vṛndāvane juṣām caraṇa-reṇu āsam
then they renounced their own family and the ARIA path (of virtue) - yā hitvā sva-janam ca ārya-patham
which is hard to be renounced, for worsiping the feet - aho dustyajam bhejuḥ padavīm
of the Liberator (from the illusion of being the material body) - mukunda
The one which is sought by the Vedas - śrutibhiḥ vimṛgyām

vande nanda-vraja-strīṇāṁ  pāda-reṇum abhīkṣṇaśaḥ
yāsāṁ hari-kathodgītaṁ  punāti bhuvana-trayam SB10.47.63

I worship incessantly the feet-dust - vande abhīkṣṇaśaḥ reṇum pāda
of the women from the community of Nanda`s shepherds - strīṇām nanda-vraja
who sing stories about the Transcendental Personality - udgītam kathā yāsām hari
purifying the three worlds - punāti bhuvana-trayam.