What Does Madhurya Bhava Mean?
From the serene (shanta) experience that comes from
realizing one's total identification with Brahman or Ultimate Reality, to conceiving of God as one's master, friend, child, or lover, the five modes
indicated increasing emotional intensity.
The Madhurya Bhava is the last and most intensive of the
five devotional forms.
Rupa Goswami - An Example Of Madhurya Bhava.
("Honeyed") Rupa Goswami, a devotee (bhakta) of the deity Krishna and a disciple of the Bengali saint Chaitanya, defined the second of five ways of devotion to God.
To depict the link between devotee and divine, Rupa exploited human ties.
What Form Of Devotion Does Madhurya Bhava Exhibit?
Devotees in this style see their connection with the divine
as that of a lover and a beloved.
This method was especially dominant when it came to the
deity Krishna (whose model worshippers were the Braj cowherd women) and Radha(who is a symbol for the human soul.)
Because of its emotional proximity, this
style is regarded as the most intense and demanding.
It is also regarded as the sweetest for the same reason.
Must Bhakti always have Bhavas?
When a devotee or Bhakta develops in devotion, he or she loses all sense of self. This is known as Bhava.
The devotee and the Lord develop a real connection via Bhava.
The devotee then develops Maha-Bhava, in which he lives, moves, and has his existence in the Lord.
Parama-Prema, or Supreme Love, is the completion of love.
What Are The 5 Different Types Of Bhavas In Bhakti?
Shanta, Dasya, Sakhya, Vatsalya, and Madhurya Bhavas are their names.
Because these Bhavas, or sentiments, are natural to humans, they are simple to cultivate.
Choose the Bhava that best matches your personality.
What Is Shanta Bhava?
The devotee in Shanta Bhava is Shanta, or tranquil.
He does not dance or leap.
He is not a particularly emotional person.
His heart is overflowing with joy and love.
Shanta Bhakta was Bhishma.
What Is Dasya Bhava?
Sri Hanuman belonged to the Dasya Bhakta sect.
He had a servant's mindset, Dasya Bhava.
He dedicated his life to Lord Rama.
In every manner conceivable, he satisfied his Master.
In the service of his Master, he discovered pleasure and ecstasy.
What Is Sakhya Bhava?
God is the devotee's companion in Sakhya Bhava.
This Bhava was directed against Lord Krishna by Arjuna.
On an equal footing with the Lord, the devotee progresses.
As close friends, Arjuna and Krishna liked to sit, dine, converse, and stroll together.
What Is Vatsalya Bhava?
The devotee in Vatsalya Bhava regards God as his child.
Lord Krishna had this Bhava with Yashoda.
Because God is your pet kid, there is no fear in this Bhava.
As a mother would with her child, the devotee serves, feeds, and looks upon God.
What Is Kanta Bhava?
Madhurya Bhava or Kanta Bhava is the final.
This is the most advanced type of Bhakti.
The believer considers the Lord to be his lover.
This was Radha and Krishna's relationship.
Atma-Samarpana or a complete surrender of the soul manifests in this love .
The beloved and the lover merge into one.
The devotee and God are one with each other, yet they must preserve their separation in order to experience the happiness of their love play.
This is oneness in separation and oneness in separation.
This Bhava was shared by Lord Gauranga, Jayadeva, Mira, and Andal.
A word of caution: Madhurya Bhava is not to be confused with worldly conjugality.
One must not be confused with the other. Earthly conjugality is totally selfish and pursued only for the pleasure of one's own self.
However, devotion to God is motivated by God's pleasure rather than the devotee's.
Divine love isn't self-centered.
Sattva gives birth to it.
Earthly desire, on the other hand, is the result of rajas and attachment to bodies.
Earthly conjugality is the result of egoistic self-regarding egoistic emotion, but heavenly communion is the result of non-egoistic feeling.
Strong egoism is the source of worldly desire, whereas heavenly love is the result of egoism's loss.
What Is The Difference Between Kama And Prema?
This is the most significant distinction between desire (kama) and heavenly love (prema).
The two are linked in the same way that light and darkness are linked.
No growth of worldly attachment, no matter how flawless, can lead to the ultimate bliss of divine connection.
Due to the fire that burns at the root of everything, lust lurks in the heart.
The worldly man, no matter how pious, is unaware of divine love.
So long as man is simply a man and woman is merely a woman, the secret of divine love cannot be grasped, and should not be attempted to be understood.
True love for God begins with the austere transformation of the human into the divine.
The Bhaktas indulge the notion of the lover and the adored in Madhurya Bhava.
He sees himself as Rama's or Krishna's wife.
This mentality is also shared by Mohammedan sufis.
A huge number of Bhaktas with Madhurya Bhava can be found in Brindavan, Mathura, and Nadiad.
They dress in ladylike attire and act and converse in a ladylike manner.
They dance a lot till they obtain Murchha Avastha (swoon) and collapse exhausted.
The most intense type of religious love is madhurya bhava.
It is the genuine love for Krishna that the gopis have in their hearts.
There can be no gender discrimination in the pursuit of this most pure kind of bhakti.
Krishna is the sensation (bhava) that develops from the jivatma or soul's relationship with the paramatma (universal soul).
The soul has neither masculine nor female characteristics.
Many famous saints have exhibited their profound madhurya bhava for Krishna, including Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Narasimh Mehta, and Ramakrishna.
It came easily to them, with little effort on their part.
The ultimate purpose of the devotional path is to develop pure love for Krishna, and what better method to do this than via madhurya bhava?
Why should spirits encased in bodies (male or female) be denied pleasure?
IN THE VRINDAVAN, MADHURYA BHAVA: 'Pancha vidha bhava' signifies assuming all five forms of Bhakti.
The Srimad Bhagavatam and the Narada Bhakti Sutra both tell about them.
To describe the nectars of bhakti, these five forms were developed.
'Bhava' means increasing in self-forgetfulness and devotion.
It is a genuine bond between the worshipper and the devotee.
Maha Bhava is when a devotee lives, moves, and exists in the Lord.
The completion of love, or Supreme Love, is known as Parama Prema.
MADHURYA BHAVA: The Lord is portrayed as a lover in this bhava.
In metaphysics, there is a distinction between form and content.
To comprehend the veracity of this philosophical theory, one must first grasp the core of the notion.
It is the greatest type of bhava, also known as Kanta Bhava.
It is the Atma Samarpana, or union of the atmas, in which the lover and the Beloved are One.
Their separation is for the purpose of enjoying the divine drama of love and bliss, in which the Lord manifests himself as pleasurable power.
This bhava, which is a manifestation of sattwa guna, should not be confused with physical desire, selfishness, or raja guna.
By embracing this bhava, many saints from the jnana path adopted the bhakti path.
This bhava was shown by Radha and Mira.
In the south, Lord Gauranga, Jayadeva, and Andal of the Alvars all did.
Mira and Andal's poetry depicts the tradition of madhurya bhava devotion.
Mira and Andal's lyric symbolism is a summation of their passionate imaginations' sophisticated sexuality.
Was their bhava, however, any different from the devotional culture of mystics poet saints Manickavasagar, Ramalinga Swamigal, and the bhakti par excellence Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who lovingly caressed Ma Kali's bosom? Without perceiving any form, these celestial individuals attained pure joy.
In the divine thoughts, the shape did not exist.
They never used their minds to speak with God, instead used their emotions.
VRINDAVAN:
Divine madhurya bhava is the result of full submission and the loss of ego.
The distinction between kama-lust and prema heavenly love is highlighted in this bhava.
Only the heart understands the mystery of heavenly love.
In reality, just as Radha's authenticity remains a mystery, it should not be attempted to be grasped.
All of this is sensed and recognized in the pure and magnificent heart.
Madhurya bhava is the Rasa lila in Vrindavan.
It is a celestial love dance between the Lord and the gopis.
The Lord's flute elicits a response from them.
The Bhagavata Purana mentions their sudha-bhakti, or pure loving devotion.
The madhurya lila contains the highest prema in the Krishna lila.
Radharani, whose core is Mahabhava, the whole dispersion of Krishna prema, is the ultimate manifestation of Madhurya prema.
While it is believed that Lord Krishna's rasa lila is the secret of all mysteries, Madhurya bhava, which is the feeling of the lover and the beloved, is the pinnacle of Bhakti.
There is no sensuality, no hint of carnality between Krishna and Radha.
This bhava is beyond the comprehension of ordinary brains.
The essence of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda is also this.
He claims that the gopis are the channel through which He may exhibit the endless diversity of His happiness aspect.
Radha, the embodiment of divine love, represents the ego's surrender in exchange for connection with the Purusha of the Heart.
She didn't even need the Lord's flute indication at one point....
She had transformed into His flute and song.
They'd evolved into ananda-chinmaya-rasa: happiness and awareness' sweetness.
Devotional rituals are used to feel closer to one's god or God.
If one considers God as a personal relative rather than the all-powerful, all-knowing God, one's relationship with God will only grow.
As a result, devotee saints advise practicing devotion in the feelings of a friend, parent, lover, and so on.
The bhava or feelings arise when one's devotion to God grows, or one might practice them according to his eligibility and preferences:
Although devotional service is one, it manifests itself in eleven forms of attachment: attachment to the Lord's glorious qualities, beauty, worship, remembering Him, serving Him, reciprocating with Him as a friend, caring for Him as a parent, dealing with Him as a lover, surrendering one's whole self to Him, being absorbed in thought of Him, and experiencing separation from Him.
This is the most important attachment.
When a person falls in love, he or she is always thinking about their lover.
A devotee who has fallen in love with God will always remember him.
As a result, of all sorts of devotion, madhurya bhava or kanta bhava (a lover's emotion) is believed to be the finest.
Because it allows a person to feel more connected to God.
And the Bible teaches that if one turns his affections towards God, regardless of desire, love, rage, or anything else, he will find Him:
Those who aim their passion, rage, fear, protective love, sense of oneness, and friendship toward Lord Hari will undoubtedly get captivated in Him. [10.29 SB] .15]
Unlike love between two people, where taints of selfish desire may remain, love for God is pure and crystal like the Sun's beams in devotional rituals.
There is no personal want left, simply a wish to see the Lord happy.
Madhurya bhava is the highest level of devotion, and only a few people, out of many, practice it effectively.
And for a select few, God is everything; from mother, father, friend, wisdom, and money, to all other gods (twameva mata cha pita twameva....mama deva deva).
Let us now consider Bhava, as a Devotional Feeling in Mythology and Scriptures.
What is the best way to love or worship Radha Krishna?
As the all-powerful God?
On the battlefield before the Mahabharat War, Arjuna listened to Shri Krishna's lessons from the Gita.
Shri Krishna often alluded to Himself as the ultimate almighty God, saying, "There is nothing beyond Me." Everything started with Me.
Everyone's heart contains me." Arjuna, on the other hand, saw Shri Krishna as a buddy.
"You keep claiming to be almighty God," he remarked.
What makes me believe this? This might be said by anybody.
Show me how God works!"
"How will you view this?" Shri Krishna said.
Your eyes are material, mayic.
They are formed of the same components as the rest of the planet.
Your body and senses are formed of material components, and they will revert to material elements once you die.
However, I am divine.
"Material components do not make up my body."
The Padma Purana argues that all living creatures, even heavenly gods and goddesses, have a distinct body and soul.
God's body and soul, on the other hand, are one.
"How would you perceive My heavenly form with your material eyes?" Shri Krishna questioned Arjuna.
Material eyes can only view the world's material items if the user has adequate vision and enough light.
These two requirements must be fulfilled.
Even with magnification, humans can only see a certain distance, and microscopic things like atoms are undetectable to us.
So, what emotion should we have when we adore God? God in His tremendous appearance terrifies even the heavenly gods and goddesses.
"We must offer praises to Him," all the heavenly gods and goddesses murmured when Narsingh Bhagwan came on this world to slay Hiranyakashipu.
He came into our planet to slay such a terrifying beast.
But He's taking on such a terrifying and enraged appearance! "Who'll be the first to go?"
"Brahma, you are His son," they said.
"You're free." "Not now," Brahma replied.
"Shiva, you have the ability to cast this planet to ashes," they continued.
Please leave." "No, I won't depart right now," Lord Shiva said.
"Send for Prahlad and let him go first," they finally agreed.
After all, God showed up on his behalf.
He'll calm down when he meets Prahlad.
We'll all go to Him then." Lord Narsingh or Nara Simha began to smile when he met Prahlad.
He sat Prahlad on His lap and caressed and stroked him gently, as parents do with their children.
The heavenly gods and goddesses, as well as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, then sang praise hymns.
"First, I will bestow divine vision on you, and then you will see God," Shri Krishna told Arjuna.
Arjuna was given heavenly eyes so that he may glimpse His awesome appearance.
However, Arjuna began to shake with terror.
He closed his eyes.
He began to perspire.
"I don't want to see!" he replied, stuttered.
You really are the all-powerful God! I had no clue till today.
I've always considered you a buddy.
Please pardon me!"
So you won't be able to love God if you adore His omnipotent form.
Instead, you will be terrified.
"My children, don't think of Me as a super omnipotent power," God says.
Connect to Me in the same manner that you relate to others."
Dasya bhava, or a servant's love for his master, is the first sort of relationship experience with God.
Because a master is kind, not furious, our devotional sentiments may now grow.
We see servants in households all around the globe.
A personal assistant is assigned to a prime minister or president.
However, a servant's right to acquaintance with his master is severely limited.
According to the Ramayana, Sir bal chalau dharma as mora, sevak dharma kathora
When Ram, Lakshman, and Sita left Ayodhya to visit the forest, Lakshman would walk behind Ram and Sita so as not to tread in their footsteps.
What a challenging task! Instead, a real servant merely puts his head where his Guru puts his feet.
Does this imply that we must walk on our heads? What gives that this is possible? This means that the position of a servant is quite challenging.
There are several propriety requirements that must be followed.
Beyond this comes sakhya bhava, the friend-to-friend relationship emotion.
What is a friend's role? "Hey, where did you go today?" he says casually as he wraps his arm over his friend's shoulders.
However, a friend's rights are likewise limited.
Beyond that, there's vatsalya bhava, or the bond between a parent and a kid.
God is adored like a kid in this bhava.
You may smack Him, twist His ear, and chastise Him for his misbehavior.
"Son, please bring my slippers..." you may say.
He'll have to deliver them! He's grown into your son.
Even yet, there are certain limitations to this sensation of love.
Madhurya bhava lies beyond this.
This is a lover's and beloved's relationship sensation.
This is not the same thing as a husband and wife's love.
A lover's and beloved's sentiments go much beyond this.
Although a woman's spouse is at home, she secretly loves someone else.
Jar prem is the kind of love that the Braj Gopis had for Krishna.
Madhurya bhava love is unselfish.
This is what makes it special.
Selflessness entails having no personal interest in one's own happiness.
Another distinguishing feature of this bhava is that one might conceive of God as one's lover, child, friend, or master.
Those who love God with any of the lesser forms of relationship affections, on the other hand, may not consider Him with the closeness of madhurya bhava.
This is not their right.
A devotee who regards God as his master is incapable of loving Him even as a friend, much less as a cherished.
"What is this foolishness!" his master would chastise any servant who placed his arm over his master's shoulders.
"Keep your distance!" This kind of intimacy is not appropriate for a servant.
The most intimate feelings are those of a lover and beloved.
The adored must comply with everything the lover requests.
A wife, on the other hand, cannot address her husband in this manner.
She must follow the standards of propriety that apply to her responsibilities as a wife.
This kind of connection is subject to a number of societal regulations.
"Son, come here," a lady cannot say to her husband.
"She called me'son?!" her spouse would exclaim.
He could then decide to take her to the hospital for treatment.
However, in madhurya bhava, God grants us the right to love him with all of these relational feelings.
We may love and connect to Him as a Beloved, a Son, a Friend, and a Master.
~Kiran Atma
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
