Process of Rasa Realization

 

• The level of senses 

At first, the poet observes the world through his five senses i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin. He sees something through his eyesight, listen something, touches something, smells something, or testes something. He perceives the world as per his ideology, his likings, or disliking. For example, a poet like William Wordsworth watches the rainbow and creates the poem i.e. “My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.” 

• The level of imagination 

When a poet feels or observes the world through his five senses, it leads him to imagine something extraordinary. Being common human being we also watch rainbow in the sky but it is his imagination which leads Wordsworth to compose such a literary work on it. It reminds us Coleridge’s concept of secondary imagination. 

• The emotional level 

Poet does not just observe the world, add the imagination, and create the poetry. He adds his emotions as well. His emotions for particular sight, event, objects, he adds into his work of art. 

• Rasa experience 

When a reader reads that poem, the vibhāva, anubhāva, and vyābhicāribhāva in the poem appeals to the dominant states or sthāyibhā within him that leads him to experience the rasa.

• Sādhāranikaran

Parallel to the poet, the reader also feels emotional as he connects his emotions with that of the emotions of a poet. Whatever he reads in the poem, it might have happened in his life or can happen in his life also. In a way, the poet narrates his own experiences but it is universal as at some or another way, the readers might have experienced or can experience in future the same which poet has experienced earlier. 

Example: 

The Flee by John Donne “It sucks me first and now sucks theeIn this flee our two bloods mingled be” (Donne)Five stages of rasa realization in it: 

1. Senses- biting of a flee (skin- touch) 
2. Imagination- mingling of blood of poet and beloved as the sexual experience or union 
3. Emotions- poet’s emotion for his beloved (love)
4. Rasa- sringāra rasa nispatti or erotic sentiment 
5. Sadharanikaran- what Donne has felt through this experience is not new, biting of a flea is a common phenomenon.