Jagat

One week to go before I leave. It is a nice day, one of those bright, blinding white, after snowfall days. Did some more shoveling out back; been shoveling for three days. I chanted the gopī-gīta and went for a walk, then I read about 30 pages of my sakhī-bhāva book. On page 155, Sharan Bihari Goswami, whose stated thesis is that Haridas Swami is the originator and main man in advancing the cause of sakhi-bhāva , finally admits that there is no equal to the Gaudiya Sampradaya for an analysis of gopi-bhāva, sakhi-bhāva and madhura-rasa . It had been a bit startling to see him restate his principal idea on page 137, after having quoted two pages earlier Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu about the sambhogecchāmayī and tad-bhāvecchā-mayī moods. If any concept makes a clear and official distinction between nāyikā and sakhī-bhāva , it is there. I found the following verses, which seem worthy of reflection, taken from the Skanda Purāṇa-- līlaiva dvividhā tasya vāstavī vyāvahārikī vāstavī ta...