भृशमाव्रजमानस्य तस्याधोवामलोचनम्।
प्रास्फुरच्चास्खलद्रामो वेपथुश्चाप्यजायत॥
bhṛśam āvrajamānasya tasyādho-vāma-locanam
prāsphurac cāskhalad rāmo vepathuś cāpy ajāyata
bhṛśam = quickly; āvrajamānasya = while He returned; tasya = His; adhaḥ-vāma-locanam = left lower eyelid; prāsphurat ca = twitched; askhalat = stumbled; rāmaḥ = Śrī Rāma; vepathuḥ = to tremble; ca = and; api = even; ajāyata = began.
While He returned quickly, His left lower eyelid twitched. Śrī Rāma stumbled and even began to tremble.
1 We will encounter this pastime in Canto 6, Chapter 38 of the Rāmāyaṇa.
2 “This rasa” refers to the rasa of conjugal love in separation, technically referred to as vipralambha-śṛṅgāra-rasa. According to the definitive treatise on the rasas of bhagavat-prema-bhakti by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī entitled Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, there are twelve rasas, out of which five are primary and seven are secondary. These are indicated in the following statement of Prabhupāda in his introduction to The Nectar of Devotion: “Lord Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the reservoir of all rasas, or relationships, which are called neutrality (passive adoration), servitorship, friendship, parenthood, conjugal love, comedy, compassion, fear, chivalry, ghastliness, wonder and devastation.”
3 And it is the very opposite for a woman. When her left eyelid twitches, it is an indication that she will undergo a desirable experience. For instance, when Rukmiṇī-devī was in distress that Lord Kṛṣṇa had not yet come to abduct and marry her, her left eyelid twitched. Prabhupāda notes, “While Rukmiṇī was in such deep thought, auspicious symptoms appeared in different parts of her body. Trembling began to occur in her left eyelid, arm and thigh. When trembling occurs in these parts of the body, it is an auspicious sign indicating that something lucrative can be expected.” (Kṛṣṇa, Chapter 53)
4 See Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 2.5.131 and 3.5.2.
5 kintu rahasya-līlā tu pauruṣa-vikāravad-indriyaiḥ pitṛ-putra-dāsa-bhāvaiś ca nopāsyā svīya-bhāva-virodhāt. Also note the following remark of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura on SB 2.4.10: iha cic-chakti-prādhānyena kṛṣṇa-rāmādy-avatāra-līlā iva māyā-śakti-prādhānyena puruṣāvatāra-līlā brahmāṇḍa-nirmāṇādyā vaiṣṇavaiḥ śravyā eva, nātra kaṭākṣaḥ kārya iti śrotṛ-vaktroḥ parīkṣit-śukayor abhiprāyo veditavyaḥ.
6 Sārārtha-darśinī on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.2.13.
7 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a form of Lord Kṛṣṇa. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, one should begin one’s meditation on the Lord from His feet and progress in such meditation as and when he is purified from desires for sense enjoyment. Padma Purāṇa: pādau yadīyau prathama dvitīyau tṛtīya-turyau kathitau yad-ūrū, nābhis tathā pañcama eva ṣaṣṭhau bhūjāntaraṁ dor-yugalaṁ tathānyau; kaṇṭhas tu rājan navamo yadīyo mukhāravindaṁ daśamaṁ praphullam, ekādaśo yasya lalāṭa-paṭṭaṁ śiro’pi tu dvādaśa eva bhāti; tam ādidevaṁ karuṇā-nidhānaṁ tamāla-varṇaṁ su-hitāvatāram, apāra-saṁsāra samudra-setuṁ bhajāmahe bhāgavata-svarūpam.
8 See Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 19 for a detailed description about these.
Till now the author has described [Lord Rāma’s] conjugal love in union [with Mother Sītā] in this book. He will now begin to describe the Lord’s conjugal love in separation [from Sītā-devī] till He ascends Mount Suvela.1 The other rasas have been shown to be subordinate constituents of this rasa.2 Conjugal love has been characterized as being of two kinds—in union and in separation: saṁyuktayos tu saṁbhogo vipralambho viyuktayoḥ.
Conjugal love in separation has ten stages:
abhilāṣa-manaḥ-saṅgau saṅkalpo guṇa-saṁstutiḥ pradveṣaḥ
tāpābhimata-tyāgāv unmādo mūrcchanā ca mṛtiḥ
“Hankering, emotional attachment, determined resolution, talk about the features [of the beloved], laziness, pain, rejection of one’s dear possessions, insanity, delusion and death.”
In this and the next two chapters, the author describes the eighth state of love in separation [experienced by Lord Rāma].
It is well-known [amongst the learned] that when one’s left lower eyelid twitches, a man will undergo several undesirable [experiences] and that when one stumbles while going [somewhere], his endeavor will be obstructed: adho-vāma-dṛśaḥ sphūrtau bahv-aniṣṭo bhavet pumān, prayāṇa-kāle skhalanaṁ karotīṣṭasya bhañjanam.3
NOTE. To benefit advanced Vaiṣṇavas free from sex desire on the path of sādhana-bhakti, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has written a transcendental book named Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. This great literature authoritatively analyzes various aspects of the conjugal pastimes of the Original Personality of Godhead Lord Kṛṣṇa and His beloved conjugal associates headed by Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and elaborates on the information provided here about the Lord’s conjugal love in union and separation.
Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu contains a detailed analysis of the other primary rasas as well as all the secondary rasas in pure love of Godhead, but these rasas can only be experienced by those who have fully surrendered themselves unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.4
Those under the grip of the external potency of the Lord should study and meditate on the Supreme Lord’s pastimes of creation, maintenance and destruction of the manifested universes as described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam instead of attempting to study the Supreme Lord’s conjugal pastimes with His beloved consorts. In Bhakti-sandarbha (338), Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has clearly stated that those who become sexually aroused upon hearing the conjugal pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead should not contemplate on them.5
In this regard, Prabhupāda has remarked:
The smiling face of the Lord is the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and there are many upstarts who at once try to begin with the Tenth Canto, and especially with the five chapters which delineate the rāsa-līlā of the Lord. This is certainly improper. By such improper study or hearing of Bhāgavatam, the material opportunists have played havoc by indulgence in sex life in the name of Bhāgavatam. This vilification of Bhāgavatam is rendered by the acts of the so-called devotees; one should be free from all kinds of sex desire before he tries to make a show of recital of Bhāgavatam. Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura clearly defines the import of purification as cessation from sex indulgence. He says, yathā yathā dhīś ca śudhyati viṣaya-lāmpaṭyaṁ tyajati, tathā tathā dhārayed iti citta-śuddhi-tāratamyenaiva dhyāna-tāratamyam uktam.6 And as one gets free from the intoxication of sex indulgence by purification of intelligence, one should step forward for the next meditation, or in other words, the progress of meditation on the different limbs of the transcendental body of the Lord should be enhanced in proportion to the progress of purification of the heart. The conclusion is that those who are still entrapped by sex indulgence should never progress to meditation above the feet of the Lord; therefore recital of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by them should be restricted to the first and second cantos of the great literature. One must complete the purificatory process by assimilating the contents of the first nine cantos. Then one should be admitted into the realm of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.7
In his purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.10.11, Prabhupāda has explained the Lord’s feelings of separation from Sītā-devī as follows thus:
[The] situation of Lord Rāmacandra is spiritual, for He does not belong to the material world. Nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt: Nārāyaṇa is beyond the material creation. Because He is the creator of the material world, He is not subject to the conditions of the material world. The separation of Lord Rāmacandra from Sītā is spiritually understood as vipralambha, which is an activity of the hlādinī potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead belonging to the sṛṅgāra-rasa, the mellow of conjugal love in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world the Supreme Personality of Godhead has all the dealings of love, displaying the symptoms called sāttvika, sañcārī, vilāpa, mūrcchā and unmada.8 Thus when Lord Rāmacandra was separated from Sītā, all these spiritual symptoms were manifested. The Lord is neither impersonal nor impotent. Rather, He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], the eternal form of knowledge and bliss. Thus He has all the symptoms of spiritual bliss. Feeling separation from one’s beloved is also an item of spiritual bliss. As explained by Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktiḥ: the dealings of love between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are displayed as the pleasure potency of the Lord. The Lord is the original source of all pleasure, the reservoir of all pleasure. Lord Rāmacandra, therefore, manifested the truth both spiritually and materially. Materially those who are attached to women suffer, but spiritually when there are feelings of separation between the Lord and His pleasure potency the spiritual bliss of the Lord increases. This is further explained in Bhagavad-gītā (9.11):
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram
One who does not know the spiritual potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead thinks of the Lord as an ordinary human being. But the Lord’s mind, intelligence and senses can never be affected by material conditions.