136 The Nectar of Devotion

Krsna. This sudden development of the devotional attitude in a per-
son must be understood as a special mercy of Krsna or of His devo-
tee. This apparently accidental development of ecstatic feelings
through the causeless mercy of Krsna can be divided into three
groups: simply by speaking, simply by glancing and simply by good
wishes.

In the Naradiya Purana there is a statement about development of
ecstatic love simply by speaking. Lord Krsna said to Narada, “‘O best
of the brahmanas, I wish that you may develop unalloyed devotional
service to Me, which is full of transcendental bliss and all auspicious-
ness.””

In the Skanda Purana there is a statement about developing ec-
static love towards Krsna simply by glancing. It is stated there:
“When the inhabitants of Jangala Province saw the Personality of
Godhead, Krsna, they were so stricken with feeling that they could
not withdraw their glance from Him.”

As far as heartfelt wishes are concerned, there is a statement in the
Suka-samhita where Narada tells Srila Vyasadeva, “You have a son
who is the greatest devotee of the Personality of Godhead, and I can
observe that without any following of the regulative principles of de-
votional service, he is already enriched with many of the symptoms
achieved by the execution of devotional service after many, many
births.”

As for ecstatic love of Krsna, there is a statement in the Seventh
Canto, 4th Chapter, 26th verse, of Srimad-Bhagavatam in which
Narada addresses King Yudhisthira: “My dear King, it is very difficult
to describe the character of Prahlada. He developed a natural attrac-
tion for Krsna, and whatever I can explain about his character will
simply be an arrangement of words; his actual character is impossible
to describe.” This means Narada himself admitted that the natural
development of Prahlada’s ecstatic love was by the grace of Lord
Krsna.

This natural attraction for Krsna on the part of Prahlada was de-
veloped simply by the mercy of Narada. When Prahlada Maharaj was
within the womb of his mother, she was being sympathetically in-
structed by Narada about the science of devotional service, and at the
