यस्य पूर्वोक्ते रागविशेषे रुचिरेव जातास्ति, न तु रागविशेष एव स्वयं, तस्य तादृशरागसुधाकरकराभाससमुल्लसितहृदयस्फटिकमणेः शास्त्रादिश्रुतासु तादृश्या रागात्मिकाया भक्तेः परिपाटीष्वपि रुचिर्जायते । ततस्तदीयं रागं रुच्यानुगच्छन्ती सा रागानुगा तस्यैव प्रवर्तते ।
yasya pūrvokte rāga-viśeṣe rucir eva jātāsti, na tu rāga-viśeṣa eva svayaṁ, tasya tādṛśa-rāga-sudhākara-karābhāsa-samullasita-hṛdaya-sphaṭika-maṇeḥ śāstrādi-śrutāsu tādṛśyā rāgātmikāyā bhakteḥ paripāṭīṣv api rucir jāyate | tatas tadīyaṁ rāgaṁ rucyānugacchantī sā rāgānugā tasyaiva pravartate |
(Excerpted from Bhakti Sandarbha: 310)
“One in whom only taste [alt., liking] (ruci) for a specific rāga among the aforementioned [rāgas for Bhagavān, viz., that of a servant, friend, elder, or beloved] has appeared, and not rather a specific rāga itself [i.e., in regard to someone in whom a specific rāga for Bhagavān has not appeared but taste for a specific rāga has]—in that one [i.e., in that type of person], the crystalline jewel of whose heart is brightly shining with the reflection of the rays from the moon of that particular rāga [for which the person has taste], taste appears also for the manners (paripāṭis) of such rāgātmikā-bhakti [i.e., the mental, verbal, and bodily expressions of such rāga] that have been heard about in the śāstra and elsewhere [i.e., from one’s guru or other sādhus]. Then, that rāgānugā [-bhakti] of that one in particular [i.e., of that person in whose heart taste for a specific rāga and its manners of expression (paripāṭis) has appeared], proceeds following a rāga related to him [i.e., Bhagavān, meaning, a specific rāga for Bhagavān of a particular rāgātmikā-bhakta] by means of taste [i.e., by means of the aforementioned taste for a specific rāga and its manners of expression (paripāṭis) that has appeared in this person].”
Commentary
The taste (ruci) discussed in this passage is not equivalent to the stage in the manifestation of prema-bhakti also known as ruci mentioned in verse 1.4.16 of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. The ruci discussed here by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī is the cause of one taking up the sādhana of rāgānugā-bhakti, and the ruci mentioned in BRS 1.4.16 is an advanced stage in the process of rāgānugā-sādhana-bhakti that one reaches after initially taking up the path of rāgānugā-sādhana-bhakti by virtue of the ruci discussed here in BKS 310 and progressing through the other stages mentioned in BRS 1.4.15–16, namely, sādhu-saṅga, bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, and niṣṭhā.
The comparison made to a crystalline jewel of the heart of someone in whom this initial taste [alt., liking] (ruci) for a particular rāga and its manners (paripāṭis) has appeared indicates that such a person’s heart is largely free from desires and inclinations for things other than bhakti and thus also free from the effects of such desires and inclinations, such as lust, anger, and greed. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s later statement in BKS 310 that the absence of relish for anything apart from bhakti is the characteristic of the appearance of rāgānugā-bhakti, that is, of taste (ruci) for a specific rāga and its manners of expression, affirms this interpretation of the intent of his metaphor.