Despite the objective superiority of gopi-bhava, the venerable Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami makes it clear the best rasa is the one that is subjectively best for each devotee.

Once he is so liberated, he never again returns to this world of repeated birth and death. The proof of this is found in “sound” or revelation (sabda).

Devotion attracts him, devotion reveals him, the Lord is influenced by devotion. Nothing is more powerful than bhakti.

The Srimad Bhagavatam (1.2.11) shows that there is an aspect of the divine beyond even Brahman. It is paratpara, or “beyond that which lies beyond.”

For the Gaudiyas, the unblemished commentary on the Vedanta Sutra is the Srimad Bhagavatam.

While on the outside the effects of prema appear like poison, on the inside they are filled with ananda.

The Veda does not claim that by studying its words with our intellect we will know the truth. It is the self-established truth imploring us to take up the means of experiencing the truth ourselves.

Although gurus are not God, neither are they to be considered as merely atomic souls bound in the net of material illusion. Gurus are servants of God as are all souls, yet they are servants who have realized the truth of their eternal servanthood.

We all want everlasting joy, but we are looking in different places for it. The joy we find in this world is fleeting at best. The search for joy is, in reality, the search for self.

All of the major traditions of Eastern spirituality and many traditions of the West tell us in so many words that our present individual identity is based on material misidentification and is thereby false. What they do not tell us is that we have an individual identity to realize in transcendence once we have dissolved the false ego.

Always pray for the mercy of Krsna, the guru, and the Vaishnavas. Remember that progress in devotion depends on progress in humility–that is the art of sadhana.