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relationship with Him is called santa-rati.
2) Attachment to Krsna that has a personal relationship, but which
consists of a mood of service endowed with awe and reverence is called
dasya-rati.
3) Attachment to Krsna which has a personal relationship, which is devoid
of reverence to the point of friendly confidence is called sakhya-rati.
4) Attachment to Krsna which has a personal relationship, and is full of
an overflowing caring mood of love (sneha) is called vatsalya-rati.
5) Attachment to Krsna which attains the level of a lover's familiarity,
and which is endowed with sheer brilliance of beauty is called
Srngara-Rati.

Q. Are there any different aspects of love (rati) or mellow (rasa)?

A. Love is nourished by the combination of these four ingredients:

1) Vibhava - (supporting characters and specific stimulants), 2) Anubhava - (13 resultant ecstatic symptoms), 3) Sattvika - (8 especially disruptive ecstatic symptoms) and 4) Vyabhicari - (33 transitory accompanying emotions).

The divine interweaving of these four ingredients stimulates the continuous gushing of the eternally perfect mellows.

Q. How many different levels are there in the materially designated conditions?

A There are three basic types:

1) Jivas with concealed consciousness, like trees and plants, etc. 2) Jivas with constricted consciousness, like animals and birds, etc., and 3) Jivas with budding consciousness, like people bereft of devotion, etc.

Q. How many different types of jivas are there in regard to being either materially conditioned or spiritually liberated?

A. There are three basic types:

1) Nitya-mukta or eternally liberated souls, they are transcendental to

matter;

2) Baddha-Mukta or those who are living in the material world but not

caught up in it; and

3) Nitya-baddha or perpetually conditioned souls who are completely

entangled in material perplexities.

Q. What type of souls are classified as nitya-baddha (perpetually conditioned)?

A. The three types of souls are concealed, constricted and budding consciousness are considered to be Nitya-baddha.

Q. How many types of Baddha-Mukta souls are there?

A. There are two types:

1) Those with blooming consciousness, like practicing devotees

(sadhana-bhaktas); and

2) Those with fully flowering consciousness, like devotees who are

relishing the outpourings of ecstatic devotional service due to being
situated in their natural eternal mellow (sthayi-bhava-bhaktas).

Q. Where do the Nitya-Baddha and the Baddha-Mukta souls reside?

A. They live in the world of maya.

Q. Where do the Nitya-Mukta souls reside?

A. In the spiritual world of Vaikuntha (the place of no anxiety).

Q. How many comparative levels of souls are there with budding consciousness?

A. There are many, but it is possible to roughly classify them into six general types thusly:

1) Uncivilized tribes of ignorant people, like the Pulindas (aborigines) and the Sabaras (mountain people), etc.

2) Civilized races which have a development of materialistic knowledge and science, as well as an emphasis on industrialized production of material goods; they do not know what is proper moral conduct, nor do they have actual faith in God; these are the characteristics of the mlecchas (meateating races), etc.

3) Races which have no personal God, but which are very fond of the natural beauty of the material world, like the Buddhists, etc.

4) Races whose ethics are endowed with a philosophy and faith of an imaginary God, just like the karma-vadis (worshippers of various demigods, etc., who do good with the hope of being elevated to higher planets. This is called imaginary because they believe various demigods to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead).

5) Races which accept the true Lord of Creation, but do not perform devotional service unto Him.

6) Races who are fond of the nirvisesa-vada (doctrine of ultimate impersonal oneness), like the jnana-kandis (those who practice the path of intellectually-wrangled spiritual knowledge).

Q. What are the different levels of all these classifications of souls?

A. From the concealed-consciousness entities up to the budding-consciousness entities, they are all classified according to the degree of their engagement in the principles of devotional service unto the Lord (bhakti-tattva). Among the blooming-consciousness entities (devotees) and the fully-flowering-consciousness entities (ecstatic devotees), the comparative levels are obvious.

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