Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu

Autor: Rūpa Gosvāmī

A treatise on devotional service, written by Rūpa Gosvāmī in 1541 at the direct order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is the first book to set out bhakti by the rules of Sanskrit poetics: the author takes the language in which India described rasa in drama and applies it to a person's relationship with God. The work is built as an ocean: four divisions named after the quarters of the sky and twenty-three waves. The eastern division defines the highest bhakti and leads from practice through bhāva to prema; the southern analyses the components of rasa; the western describes the five principal rasas — peace, service, friendship, parental affection and love; the northern the seven secondary rasas and their semblances. More than half the book consists of verses from the Bhāgavata, the purāṇas and the pañcarātra, quoted as evidence. The reading unit is the verse, numbered by division, wave and verse.