aprākṛte tu paroḍha-ramaṇī-ratir eva sarvottamatayā bhūyasī
aprākṛte tu paroḍha-ramaṇī-ratir eva sarvottamatayā bhūyasī śrūyate, na tasyā anaucitya-pravartitattvam alaukikatva-siddher bhūṣaṇam eva na tu dūṣaṇam iti nyāyāt, tarkāgocaratvāc ca, tathā ca ‘alaukikāś ca ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet’ iti ca | vraja-vadhūnāṁ kṛṣṇaikatāna-mānasatvena sva-pati-niṣṭhatvābhāvāt teṣāṁ ca māyā-kalita-tac-chāyānuśīlanena tad-aṅga-saṅgamāt, pratyuta kevalānurāga-mātropādhitayā ceto-rañjakatāyāḥ śuddhatvam eva |
(Alaṅkāra-kaustubha: 5.13)
“In the case of the supramundane [i.e., supramundane rasa], however, love (rati) for a woman married to another is heard to be greater [than love for a wife] on account of [its] being the most excellent of all [types of love]. It’s not being prompted by impropriety is (1) because of the principle that its accomplishment on the basis of otherworldliness is verily an ornament and not rather a fault, (2) because of [its] being beyond the scope of argument (tarka), and (3) because [it is said in Mahābhārata], ‘Do not assess otherworldly states of being [e.g., such otherworldly love] with argumentation;’ on the contrary the veritable purity of that delighter of the heart [i.e., of that supramundane love (rait) which Kṛṣṇa has for a woman married to another] on account of [its] having an adjunct only of pure loving desire (anurāga) is (1) because of the ladies of Vraja’s absence of having attachment to their own husbands by virtue of [their] being of one-pointed mind upon Kṛṣṇa and (2) because of their [i.e., the gopīs’] contact with their [i.e., those husbands’] bodies [having occurred only] by means of lying with a shadow form of themselves fabricated by māyā.”