Verse Text
asminn ālambanaḥ kṛṣṇas tathānyo ’pi tad-anvayī |
vṛddhāḥ śiśu-mukhāḥ prāyaḥ proktā dhīrais tad-āśrayāḥ |
vibhāvanādi-vaiśiṣṭhyāt pravarāś ca kvacin matāḥ ||7||
Translation
In hāsya-rasa, Kṛṣṇa and persons performing humorous actions directed to Kṛṣṇa are the ālambana. The wise say that the elders and the chief young children are usually the āśrayas of hāsya-rasa. In special circumstances, the chief personalities become the āśraya of this rasa.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Kṛṣṇa is the ālambana of hāsya-rasa only in the sense of being the viṣaya of the parārtha-rati (the principle rati such as sakhya which recedes when hāsya becomes prominent) and by being the cause of laughter that becomes manifest. Persons performing actions connected to Kṛṣṇa which induce laughter are also the ālambana for hāsya-rasa in the sense of their being the āśraya of that hāsya-rati and being the particular cause of that laughter. The old persons and chief young children are said to be the āśrayas of hāsya-rasa (tad-āśrayāḥ) by the wise.
However, there is no direct viṣaya of hāsya-rasa, because hāsya has the form of simply “blossoming of the heart.” It is similar to the blossoming of the lotus which does not have a particular object to which it directs blossoming. Viṣaya is that which serves as the object for a certain activity. (Thus technically a particular person as viṣaya is excluded in hāsya-rasa.) When a joke or laughing is expressed however, then to some extent it produces an object of laughter. That however is not considered here.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
Expert learned scholars say that laughing is generally found among youngsters or in the combination of old persons and young children. This ecstatic loving laughing is sometimes also found in persons who are very grave by nature.