Bhakti of devotional love is the way of directly encountering the rasa in human experience. The aesthetic experience of rasa which is available to human beings was somehow not fully manifested and established from the ‘intellectual’ point of view. A glimpse of the rasa accomplished is available in the encounter of Uddhava and Gopies. Humans by nature are rational and logical beings. They prefer logical conclusions which have universal applicability. To logically establish the path of rasa was the endeavour of the seekers and thinkers of Vrindavan, which emerged as the 16th century intellectual, cultural and spiritual center of the Vraja region. Sri Rupa Gosvamin, a direct disciple of Sri Caitanya, was a shining member of the team of six Gosvamins. For him the emotionally experienced bhakti-prema-rasa is equally knowable and communicable. The human consciousness could reach the ocean of rasa through Sri Rupa Gosvamin’s unique work, Sri Bhaktirasamrtasindhu. If there is an experience, it can be expressed and for an expression to be meaningful it has to be guided by a ‘grammar’ or a sastra. The famous trilogy of Bhaktirasamrtasindhu, Ujjvalanilamani and Natakacandrika of Sri Rupa Gosvamin provided for the first time a total sastra of bhaktirasa.
It is felt that the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu be made available to the English-knowing world as well. Dr. David Haberman has fulfilled this need by undertaking the stupendous task of translating this definitive text on bhaktirasa into English. The present edition includes the original Sanskrit in Devanagari, Dr. Haberman’s translation and exegetical notes explaining all the intricate points of the text. An exhaustive table of contents and elaborate introduction, glossary and bibliography have greatly enhanced the value of the edition.
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