preparation is necessary, 10) rasa is not produced but suggested and Brahman is only a question of removal of ignorance, 11) obstacles must be removed to experience rasa and Brahman, 12) in both cases there is a sense of rest of having reached the goal beyond which there is nothing to be accomplished, and 13) the aesthetic experience or the mystical experience are not the ultimate goals. Doctrine of Rasa in Sanskrit literature The Rasa doctrine of literature is based on two premises – i) that literary works, as verbal compositions, express emotive meanings and ii) that all literature is typically emotive discourse or discourse that has to do with the portrayal of feelings and attitudes rather than with ideas, concepts, statements of universal truth and so forth. The first premise raises philosophical questions with regard to kind of entities of emotions, their objective or ontological status, recognition, modes of expression, etc. The second premise relates to the problem of defining literature. Rasa, originally propounded by Bharata and which is multifaceted, is the most important concept in Sanskrit criticism and has influenced the theories of dance and the visual arts; this term means – aesthetic relish, and comprehends two ideas – that it denotes the relishable quality inherent in an artistic work and that it refers to the relishable experience occasioned by the work in the reader or the spectator. Every work - poem or play – is supposed to treat an emotive theme and communicate a distinct emotional flavor and mood. But, Bharata does not refer to Rasa as a semblance of a mental condition or an experience of an illusion of reality, for to describe it as a copy is to presuppose the existence of the object imitated, and that which appears as a copy of the mood cannot be traced. Significance In Rasasvada the sthayibhava (basic mental states) persists in the self, spiritual ecstasy is on the other hand free from any mental experience whatsoever; the mystical ecstasy is dominated by pure consciousness (Citta). References Vedanta Sanskrit words and phrases