Live Caitanya Caritamrta · CC Madhya 23.13
Love of Godhead Is Life’s Highest Perfection
“When that ecstatic emotional stage intensifies, it is called love of Godhead. Such love is life’s ultimate goal and the reservoir of all pleasure.
What the purport teaches
- By good fortune, interest in devotional service develops into a desire for pure devotional service and association with devotees. This association increases interest in service, hearing and chanting.
- Freedom from unwanted things is called anartha-nivṛtti and is the test of development in devotional service. Freedom from illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating is among its preliminary symptoms.
- Purification leads to firm faith, taste and attachment, through which the seed of love of Kṛṣṇa fructifies as prīti, rati or bhāva. When rati intensifies, it becomes love of Godhead, life’s highest perfection and the reservoir of all pleasure.
Try this today
Identify one unwanted habit today and choose one concrete step toward giving it up.
Ask yourself
Are unwanted things diminishing as your interest in devotional service grows?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport; the practice and question are plain words for trying the verse today.