ART IN BENGAL VAISHNAVISM 79 exultation of the sex enjoyment is not followed by the almost universal phj'sical or psycho- physical depi'ession, when with satiation both body and mind turn away from the object of the sex passion. But this^^ is not all. The whole experience must be universalised and spiritualised. When the physical drops off like the yellow leaves of autumn, and the emo- tional and the spiritual overwhelm the whole being of the lover, it is then and then only that sex-love reaches the truly romantic plane. The four rasa-s of our Yaishnava aesthetics are deduced from the actual realisations of different kinds of devotees. Some, by the very make and nature of their being, find their highest self-fulfilment in the cultivation of the dasya rasa. This is the predominant note, for instance, in the Judaic or Moslem piety, where the Ultimate Reality has been apprehended primarily as the “Lord Almighty’’. In fact, in the earliest Hebrew records, we find no mention of the love of God, but only reference to His might and majesty. God has been worshipped both in Judaism and Islam only as the abode of all might and the source of all law and justice. He is the King, the earth is His kingdom, mankind are His subjects. This
