ART IN BENGAL VAISHNAVI8M 61 lutely essential to the attainment of real bhakti, according to the realisations of Bengal Yaishnavism. As already stated, whether we accept and pursue the ideal of bhakti as the service of the Lord of the senses through sense- activities or as complete self-surrender to the Yishnu with supreme love, the purification of the senses, through universal God-realisation and the attainment of complete equanimity thereby, must be accepted as an absolute condi- tion-precedent of the cultivation of bhakti. This is particularly' necessary for the realisation of bhakti or love of God in and through our human relations of love and service, which is implied in the pursuit of bhakti through the four specific rasas, dasya, sakhya, batsalya and madhura. The apotheosis of these human relations or the complete elimination of our carnal conception regarding the objects of our love and affection as mere men and women, or, in other words, the realisation of the Absolute in all His fullness and perfection in the objects of our love aud affection, — this is a necessary- pre-condition of the pursuit of this bhakti. And the object of the shanta rasa, which is acquired through Universal God-consciousness, is to prepare the ground for the cultivation of the highest bhakti. Shanta, therefore, is not
