Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/68

 THE BENGAL BHAKTI CULT 63 by the Bengal school, is not only the union of consciousness or jnanam, but also the union of passions and desires and the will of the devotee, with those of the Object of his devotion. The Lord here is conceived not as undifferentiated but as self-differentiated unity. He is cons- tantly striving for re-integration with Him- self. This is the passion of the Lord. This desire is the soul of our love also. We cannot know that which is not already in us. In all our act of knowing there is this universal fact of differentiation and integration. Similarly, in our love or passion, we do not really desire something foreign to us, but always and onl3’- that which is in our subliminal consciousness as perfect beaut This word beaitty, however, hardly exhausts the truth of love. Our word for it is rasa. Literally rasa means that which gives satisfaction and enjoyment. This rasa is what attracts us to things that we desire or like or love. This rasa is the soul and essence of what we understand as love or prema. The definition of Bhakti as or the realisation that the Lord is mine and I am the Lord’s — is fuller than the definition of Bhakti as the service of the Lord of the senses with the senses. In this service, the senses.