Shanta (“peaceful”) Bhava

The first of the five modes of devotion to
God that were most prominently articulated by Rupa Goswami, a devotee
(bhakta) of the god Krishna and a follower of the Bengali saint Chaitanya.
Rupa used five different models of
human relationships to explain the variety of links followers might have with
the deities. These five models showed
growing emotional intensity, from the
peaceful (shanta) sense that comes from
realizing one’s complete identity with
Brahman, or Supreme Reality, to conceiving of god as one’s master, friend,
child, or lover. The shanta bhava, in
which one finds mental peace through
the realization of complete identity with
Brahman, is the only one of these modes
in which the devotee does not have a
personalized relationship with God.
Given Rupa’s assumption that Krishna
was the highest manifestation of godhead, and that true religious life
involved having a relationship with him,
the shanta bhava was thus judged inferior to the other four modes.