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?”
Gosvāmī: 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