Bhava Dasa ("servant") - Rupa Goswami, a devotee (bhakta) of the god Krishna and a disciple of the Bengali saint Chaitanya, defined the second of the five forms of devotion (method of devotion to a deity) to God.
Rupa utilized several forms of human connections as models for various views of the deity-devotee relationship.
From the serene (shanta) experience that comes from recognizing one's total identification with Brahman, or Ultimate Reality, to seeing God as one's master, friend, child, or lover, these five phases demonstrated increasing emotional intensity.
The second of them is the Dasa Bhava, in which worshippers saw themselves as slaves to the god and the deity as their master.
This second mode of devotion should be understood in the context of the Indian society's relationship between masters and servants, which differs significantly from the relationship between employer and employee in modern America.
The servants of a family often stay with them for many years, and in some cases, their service is passed down through the generations.
Long-serving servants are treated as virtual family members, respected, trusted, and occasionally regarded as advisors.
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