BRS 2.5.36

The rati of the women which is the root cause of eight types of mutual enjoyment (such as seeing or remembering) between the Lord and the doe-eyed women is called priyatā-rati. This rati is defined in this way with the perception of the devotee as the experiencer and Kṛṣṇa as the object of experience. When Kṛṣṇa is the experiencer and the devotee (gopī) is the object of His experience, that rati becomes a stimulus or uddīpana for further rati in the devotee. The word priyatā means the emotional state of the female lover (who is called priyā). Thus this definition of priyatā-rati describes the devotee’s or gopī’s emotional state of being a lover of Kṛṣṇa. According to the rule tasya bhāvas tva talau (Pāṇini 5.1.119) tva and tā are added as suffixes to indicate “having the nature of...” They thus indicate qualities. Thus priyatā-rati means that rati which has the quality of being a female lover. Used to indicate qualities, they are added to masculine forms of words. In the Kātantra grammar this is explained: guṇa-grahaṇenātra jāti-saṁjṣayor nivṛttiḥ kriyate tena pācikāyāḥ pācakatvam: when a word becomes descriptive of quality by addition of tā, it first loses its original gender and name, as in pācikā becoming pācakatvam. This priyatā-rati is also called madhura-rati (madhurāpara-paryāyā). The example given in the following verse should be understood to illustrate this rati to a small degree.