CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT<\/p>\n
Dread and Ghastliness<\/p>\n
DREAD<\/p>\n
In ecstatic love for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a in dread, there are two causes of fear: either K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a Himself or some dreadful situation for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a. When a devotee feels himself to be an offender at K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a\u2019s lotus feet, K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a Himself becomes the object of dreadful ecstatic love. And when, out of ecstatic love, friends and well-wishers of K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a apprehend some danger for Him, that situation becomes the object of their dread.<\/p>\n
When \u1e5ak\u1e63ar\u0101ja was in front of K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a fighting and suddenly realized that K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a addressed him thus: \u201cMy dear \u1e5ak\u1e63ar\u0101ja, why is your face so dry? Please do not feel threatened by Me. There is no need for your heart to tremble like this. Please calm yourself down. I have no anger toward you. You may, however, become as angry as you like with Me \u2013 to expand your service in fighting with Me and to increase My sporting attitude.\u201d In this dreadful situation in ecstatic love for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a, K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a Himself is the object of dread.<\/p>\n
There is another instance of a dreadful situation with K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a as the object as follows. After being sufficiently chastised by child K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a in the Yamun\u0101 River, the K\u0101liya snake began to address the Lord, \u201cO killer of the Mura demon, I have acquired many mystic powers by my austerity and penances, but before You I am nothing; I am most insignificant. Therefore, please be kind upon a poor soul like me, and don\u2019t be angry with me. I did not know Your actual position, and out of ignorance I have committed such horrible offenses. Please save me. I am a most unfortunate, foolish creature. Please be merciful to me.\u201d This is another instance of the ecstasy of dread in devotional service.<\/p>\n
When the Ke\u015b\u012b demon was causing disturbances in V\u1e5bnd\u0101vana by assuming a large horse\u2019s body that was so big that he could jump over the trees, mother Ya\u015bod\u0101 told her husband, Nanda Mah\u0101r\u0101ja, \u201cOur child is very restless, so we had better keep Him locked up within the house. I have been very worried about the recent disturbances of the Ke\u015b\u012b demon, who has been assuming the form of a giant horse.\u201d When it was learned that the demon was entering Gokula in an angry mood, mother Ya\u015bod\u0101 became so anxious to protect her child that her face dried up and there were tears in her eyes. These are some of the signs of the ecstasy of dread in devotional service caused by seeing and hearing something that is dangerous to K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a.<\/p>\n
After the P\u016btan\u0101 witch had been killed, some friends of mother Ya\u015bod\u0101 inquired from her about the incident. Mother Ya\u015bod\u0101 at once requested her friends, \u201cPlease stop! Please stop! Don\u2019t bring up the incident of P\u016btan\u0101. I become distressed just by remembering this incident. The P\u016btan\u0101 witch came to devour my son, and she deceived me into letting her take the child on her lap. After that, she died and made a tumultuous sound with her gigantic body.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the ecstasy of devotional service in dread, the unconstitutional symptoms are drying up of the mouth, exuberance, glancing behind oneself, concealing oneself, bewilderment, searching after the endangered lovable object and crying very loudly. Some other unconstitutional symptoms are illusion, forgetfulness and expectation of danger. In all such circumstances the ecstatic dread is the steady or constant factor. Such dread is caused either by offenses committed or by dreadful circumstances. Offenses may be committed in varieties of ways, and the dread is felt by the person who has committed the offense. When dread is caused by a fearful object, this fearful object is generally a person who is fearsome in his features, nature and influence. An example of an object that caused ecstatic dread is the P\u016btan\u0101 witch. Dread may be caused by mischievous demoniac characters, such as King Ka\u1e41sa, and it may be caused by great powerful demigods, such as Indra or \u015aa\u1e45kara.<\/p>\n
Demons like Ka\u1e41sa feared K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a, but their feelings cannot be described as ecstatic dread in devotional service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT Dread and Ghastliness DREAD In ecstatic love for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a in dread, there are two causes of fear: either K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a Himself or some dreadful situation for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a. When a devotee feels himself to be an … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 11:45:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}