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The Nectar of Devotion
ter. In the Eleventh Canto, 2nd Chapter, 38th verse, of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  this ecstatic love, born of the execution of regulative devotional service, is explained: “A devotee, in the course of executing the regulative principles of devotional service, develops his natural Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and being thus softened at heart he chants and dances like a madman. While performing chanting of the holy name of the Lord, he sometimes cries, sometimes talks wildly, sometimes sings, and sometimes—without caring for any outsider—dances like a madman.”
In the  Padma Purāṇa  there is a statement about ecstatic love born of spontaneous affection. Candrakānti, a celebrated fair-faced girl, rigidly observed celibacy in order to obtain Kṛṣṇa as her husband. She always engaged herself in meditating on the transcendental form of the Lord and always chanted the glories of the Lord. She did not desire to accept anyone else as her husband. She had firmly decided that only Lord Kṛṣṇa would be her husband.
The Lord's Extraordinary Mercy
When a devotee is found to be always associated with the Lord in ecstatic love, it is to be understood that such a position is awarded by the Lord Himself out of His causeless extraordinary mercy. An example of such extraordinary mercy is given in the Eleventh Canto, 12th Chapter, 6th verse, of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , wherein Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava: “The  gopīs  in Vṛndāvana did not study the  Vedas  to achieve Me. Nor had they ever been in holy places of pilgrimage. Nor did they devoutly execute any regulative principle. Nor did they undergo any kind of austerity. It is simply by My association that they have attained the highest perfection of devotional service.”
From the example of Candrakānti as found in the  Padma Purāṇa  and from the example of the  gopīs  as found in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , it appears that a devotee who always thinks of Kṛṣṇa and who always chants His glories in ecstatic love, regardless of his condition, will attain the highest perfection of unalloyed devotional love due to Lord Kṛṣṇa's extraordinary mercy. This is confirmed in