Verse Text
yathottaram asau svāda-viśeṣollāsamayy api |
ratir vāsanayā svādvī bhāsate kāpi kasyacit ||38||
Translation
These five types of rati progressively (from śuddha to priyatā-rati) become more blissful by increasing tastes. The particular taste arises in a devotee according to his previous experiences.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
…Among the various tastes such as sweet, sour and bitter, a particular person has a particular liking because of previous impressions. Because of impressions from past life of a particular rasa such as dāsya, in this life also, the person has that taste alone and not others, by the mercy of a great devotee with a similar taste. This is the case of for the two types of dāsya and the other three higher rasas.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
After the five types of rati have been described, a doubt arises. Should all these types be considered equal or successively superior? If they are equal, then all the ratis should have the same inclinations. If they are successively superior, what is the cause for differing inclinations in people for different ratis? This verse answers. Increasing from first to last (yathottaram), from śuddha-rati to priyatā-rati, they become progressively filled with taste or delight.
But what determines who takes up which type of rati? Is it decided by having no impressions of a particular rati from previous lives, by having an impression of one type of rati from previous lives, or by having impressions of many types of rati? In the first option--absence of impressions--rati cannot occur at all, because no taste could arise. In the case of persons having impressions of many types of rati, a particular rati could not manifest prominently because conflicting tastes would result in improper manifestation of rasa (rasābhāsa). Therefore, impressions of only one type carried from previous lives produce the specific taste. Though not being in a position to perceive the depth of that rasa, one can confirm its identity by comparing scriptural descriptions of rasas with one’s own inclinations, and by inference through seeing how rasas, different from one’s own rasa, either nourish or fail to nourish the total ingredients. [Note: For each primary rasa, certain other primary and secondary rasas restrict or increase it.]
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
When there is such an indirect expression of conjugal love, there is smiling, astonishment, enthusiasm, lamentation, anger, dread and sometimes ghastliness. These seven exchanges of conjugal love form another state of ecstatic love.
In a direct relationship of conjugal love, there is laughter, astonishment, chivalry, lamentation, anger and dread, but there is no ghastliness. These expressions are considered to be great reservoirs of pleasure. When these seven kinds of ecstatic loving exchanges are manifested, they attain the status of steadiness by which the taste of conjugal love expands.