[Fetters of the soul.] God-consciousness does not come so long as there are three things in the heart,--shame, hatred and fear. These three and caste pride are the fetters of the soul. When these fetters are broken, freedom is attained. Bound by fetters is Jiva (the ego), free from fetters is Shiva (God).

Every man has certain debts to pay,--a debt to the Divine Spirit, a debt to the sages, debt to mother, to father, to the wife. No man can renounce everything without paying off these debts. But if his soul be intoxicated with Divine Love and become mad after God, then he is free from all duties and debts. Then who

is his father, who is his mother and who is his wife? [Madness of Divine Love.] He behaves like a madman who is free from all bondage and who has no duty to perform. Do you know what that madness of Divine Love is? In that state one forgets the world and becomes unconscious of one's own body which is so dear to one. Chaitanya Deva possessed this madness of ecstasy. He had neither hunger, nor thirst, nor sleep, nor consciousness of his physical form. The meaning of the word Chaitanya is "indivisible and absolute intelligence." Vaishnava Charan used to say that Chaitanya Deva, the Incarnation of Divine Love, was like a bubble on the ocean of that Absolute Intelligence.

[Divine Love and ecstasy.] Divine Love is the rarest thing in the world. He who can love God as a devoted wife loves her husband, attains to Divine Love. Pure love is difficult to acquire. In pure love the whole heart and soul must be absorbed in God. Then will come ecstasy. In ecstasy a man remains dumb with wonder. Outward breathing stops entirely, but inward breathing continues: as when aiming a gun, a man remains speechless and without breathing. In Divine Love one entirely forgets the external world with all its charms and attractions;

even one's own body, which is so dear to one, is easily forgotten. In ecstasy, when the breathing stops, the whole mind remains absolutely fixed upon the Supreme. All nerve currents run upward with tremendous force and the result is Samadhi or God-consciousness. Those who are mere scholars (Pandits) and have not attained Divine Love, confound the minds of others.