The next day, Vijaya Kumāra and Vrajanātha came as usual to the lotus feet of Śrī Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī, and after offering their sāṣṭāṅga - daṇḍavat-praṇāma, they began to ask questions in order to clarify the subjects that they had discussed the previous day. Vrajanātha inquired, “Prabhu, from everything you have explained about vibhāva, anubhāva, sāttvika-bhāva, and vyabhicārī-bhāva, it seems that they are all bhāvas. Then, where is sthāyībhāva amongst them?”
It is true that they are all bhāvas. Sthāyībhāva is that bhāva which subjugates all the compatible bhāvas such as hāsya, as well as the incompatible bhāvas such as anger, and which predominates and continues to reign as the emperor of all the other bhāvas. Sthāyībhāva is the rati that the bhakta has in his heart for Kṛṣṇa in identifying himself as āśraya and Kṛṣṇa as viṣaya. In the description of the ingredients of rasa, you see that āśraya has been classified within vibhāva as ālambana (support). That bhāva brings the other bhāvas under its control, and accepts some of them as motivations for rasa, and some as assistants to taste rasa. In this predominant position, although it has the form of a relishable bhāva, at the same time, it relishes the other bhāvas itself. Study this very deeply, and reflect on how the sthāyībhāva is different from the other bhāvas. Rati in the form of sthāyībhāva can be either primary or secondary, so there are two types of rati: mukhya-rati and gauṇa-rati.