[The madness of love for the Lord. ] The dancing and singing had all taken place in the reception-hall. The Bhagavan then withdrew into one of the adjoining rooms to the west. To a disciple He said, talking of the Gopis: How wonderful was their devotion! At the sight of the

[paragraph continues] Tamal tree they were seized with the very madness of love.

Disciple: This was also the case with Chaitanya. Looking at the forest he thought it was Vrindavan, the sacred birthplace of Sri Krishna, that was before him!

Bhagavan: Oh! if anyone is but favored with a single particle of this ecstatic love! What devotion! What intense love! Of this devotion they not only had the full complement (sixteen Annas) but a great deal more than the full complement--five Sikas and five Annas! This is called the madness of Divine Love. The chief thing is to have intense love and sincere and earnest longing for God. On whatever path you may travel, whether you believe in the Divinity with or without form, whether you have faith in God-incarnate in a human form or not,--if you have intense love and sincere longing for Him, you are sure to attain to Him. He alone knows what He is like. He Himself will make you realize His Divine Nature. Why should you be mad after the things of the world? If you must be mad, be mad for God. There is a madness of Divine Love, a madness of Bhakti, or ecstasy, and a madness of Jnana. Radha had the madness of

[paragraph continues] Divine Love. Hanuman showed the madness of true devotion. When Sita was forced by Rama to prove her chastity by going through the ordeal of fire, Hanuman, although a devotee of Rama, was so maddened that he wished to kill his Lord, the Divine Incarnation. I saw a true Jnani, who wandered like a madman. He came to the Temple garden. He had so realized the oneness of the Spirit in every living creature that when he saw a dog eating the remains of a dish, he held him by the ears and said: "Brother, wilt thou eat all?" He then took a portion and ate with the dog. He said to Hridrai: "When the holy waters of the Ganges and the water of the gutter appear the same, then will come the realization of Divine oneness."

At one time I had this madness. I used to walk like a madman, seeing the same Spirit everywhere and recognizing neither high nor low in caste or creed. I could eat even with a Pariah. I had the constant realization that Brahman is Truth and the world is unreal like a dream. Once Mathura Babu took me in a boat. The Mohammedan crew were cooking and I was about to eat with them, but Mathura Babu would not let me. In that state I used to

bow down before everybody and would ask them to repeat the Holy Name of the Lord. As in a violent storm a screen of dust rises, hiding the trees of different kinds and making all trees appear alike, so in that storm of spiritual vision I could not distinguish one man from another as high or low.