"Bhakti or devotional love is the way of directly encountering the rasa in human experience. The aesthetic experience of rasa which is available to human beings was somehow not fully manifested and established from the ‘intellectual’ point of view. A glimpse of the rara accomplished is available in the encounter of Uddhava and Gopis. Humans by nature are rational and logical beings. They prefer logical conclusions which have universal applicability. To logically establish the path of rasa was the endeavour of the seekers and thinkers of Vrindavan, which emerged as the 16 century intellectual, cultural and spiritual centre of the Vraja region. Sri Rupa Gosvamin, a direct disciple of Sri Caitanya, was a shining member of the team of six Gosvamins. For him the emotionally experienced bhakti-prema-rasa is equally knowable and communicable. The human consciousness could reach the ocean of rasa through Sri Rupa Gosvamin’s unique work, Sri Bhaktirasamrtasindhu. If there is an experience, it can be expressed and for an expression to be meaningful it has to be guided by a ‘grammar’ or a sastra. The famous trilogy of Bhaktirasamrtasindhu, Ujjvalanilamani and Natakacandrika of Sri Rupa Gosvamin provided for the first time a total sastra of bhaktirasa.

"It is felt that the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu be made available to the English-knowing world as well. Dr. David Haberman has fulfilled this need by undertaking the stupendous task of translating this definitive text on bhaktirasa into English. The present edition includes the original Sanskrit in Devanagari, Dr. Haberman’s translation and exegetical notes explaining all the intricate points of the text. An exhaustive table of contents and elaborate introduction, glossary and bibliography have greatly enhanced the value of the edition." (jacket)

From the preface: "That translation is an art and not a science is never more evident than when a translator faces the choice of the audience for whom he will translate. I have chosen to present this text in English in a style intended for general academic audiences, not primarily for philologists. I assume that Sanskritists can read the text in its original language, and that most of my readers have little or no knowledge of Sanskrit. Therefore, although I have tried to make this translation as literal as possible, I have also aimed to make it accessible to the nonspecialist; many of the notes were written particularly with this in mind. Consequently, I have endeavored to translate every term into English. For example, although the Sanskrit term bhakti is not necessarily well translated as "devotion", I have elected to do so in order to make the term available in a form commonly found in English translations. In this spirit, I have also sometimes added introductory phrases in square brackets (e.g., [the words of Yasoda:]) where I have deemed them necessary for clear understanding. A brief glossary is included at the end of this book to assist in understanding technical terms. Moreover, although the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu is written in verse that is often beautifully poetic, I have chosen to translate the entire text into prose for the sake of clarity.

"This work has produced in response to an invitation by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, specifically for the Vraja Nathadvara Prakalpa series. A decision was made to publish a Devanagari edition and English translation of the version of the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu edited by Puridasa Mahasaya and published in Vrndavana in 1946 in the Bengali script. This version was based on four published manuscripts. I have found very little disparity between the various published editions and the unpublished manuscripts of the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu housed in the Vrndavana Research Institute. I have also made productive use of the edition published by Haridasa Dasa (Navadvipa: Haribola Kuthira, 1945), which includes the commentaries of Jiva Gosvamin, Visvanatha Cakravartin, and Mukundadasa Gosvamin, as well as a Bengali translation of the text by Haridasa himself, and the edition published by Syamadasa Hakima (Vrndavana: Harinama Press, 1981), which includes the commentaries of Jiva Gosvamin and Visvanatha Cakravartin, as well as a Hindi translation of the text by Syamadasa himself. I found the Sanskrit commentaries as well as these Bengali and Hindi translations to be extremely useful throughout my own labors to produce a faithful translation of this text."