[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 17th, 1998, Australia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 23]
Srila Gurudeva: What is the symptom if anyone has rati? Don’t think that if anyone is weeping and chanting Hare Krsna that they have rati. Be careful. How can you know whether there is rati or not? If anyone has rati, there are some symptoms for that. You can judge for yourself if anyone has rati or not. First is ksanti. You are doing bhajana and it may be that some thing may come to make you angry and disturb your heart, but still your heart is so calm and quiet. You never become angry, you never become disturbed. Although so many things come, he is always calm and quiet. Why? He will think, “Oh, this is the laws of material nature. In this world, this always happens. Anyone dies, or anyone becomes so troublesome, so I should not give my attention so much for all these things. I should try to do bhajana.” Avyartha-kalatvam, he always chants, remembers and he is always in the association of any bhakta. He is not wasting even a single minute. Viraktir, He is always detached from all material things, material matters. He is never attached to anyone of this world. His attachment is always with Krsna. So, he has no attachment to this world. If you have no attachment for Krsna and bhakti, then automatically you are bound to attach with worldly things. But if anyone has rati, then he has no attachment to anyone or any worldly things. Then, mana-sunyata. He never wants his own praise, that all should praise him. We may be giving a lecture and think, “How beautiful a lecture I have given? Oh you should tell me, “Oh very good. I see that in the whole world anyone cannot speak letters like you. Perhaps you are Himself God.” Never, never. If anyone will glorify him like so, he will think, “I am dying, I am dying, I am dying.” They will think it is like a plague.
Asa-bandhah, He is in firm belief that Krsna will be merciful. “I will surely attain krsna-prema.” Samutkantha, “When will I have krsna-prema, when will I have krsna-prema? How will I have this thing?” He thus engages in all the practices of bhakti: sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, vandanam, pada-sevanam, arcanam, dasyam, sakhyam, and atma-nivedanam, and he follows all these things purely. Nama-gane sada rucih, he always has taste in doing sankirtana nama. [Srila Gurudeva and devotees sing in a very melodious tune] Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, always. Whether he is alone or whether there are so many devotees, there is always nama-gane sada rucih. There is always some taste in chanting. Asaktis tad-gunakhyane, he is always very fond of explaining the hari-katha of his Gurudeva, Vaisnavas, and especially of Krsna and Radha and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, always. Sometimes he will weep when explaining all these things. Pritis tad-vasati-sthale. Where will he live? Especially he will live in Vrndavana, in Navadvipa-dhama, in Gambhira, or anywhere where the pastimes of Krsna took place, knowing all these things. These are some symptoms that you can judge yourself that anyone has rati.