Lord Caitanya’s mercy is like a shower of rain that can transform our heart, which is now like a desert due to the scorching heat of selfish desires.

The first chapter of "Madhurya-kadambini" is a theoretical description of bhakti. Bhakti is maha-sakti of the Lord Himself, it is the energy of His svarup. Sometimes people think that they have bhakti, but at the same time there is no change of their heart. Bhakti can only be obtained by the mercy of a devotee.

Second chapter describes sraddha, sadhu-sanga and bhajana-kriya. Sraddha is not just a faith, but a partial manifestation of prema. Everyone has faith in something, and what is the nature of our faith is what we should analyze very carefully. The real sraddha is the desire to be connected with the truth. If we believe in something, we really put our heart in it. Four kinds of sraddha: 1) faith in something spiritual; 2) faith in karma; 3) faith in adharma; 4) faith in service to Krisna, but first we should become a devotee.

Bhakti first appears in the senses, so that they get different taste, and a desire to do something favorable for the Lord. The ultimate goal of life is happiness, and bhakti is a very special way to obtain it by making the one we love happy.

The seed of faith, which we obtain, may be of different nature, therefore association with devotees is the only way to obtain the real faith. Only bhakti can completely transform the person, because when we come close to the Lord, we manifest our best qualities, and ultimately this becomes our nature.

We all have the field of ignorance or avidya, the seeds of karma are growing there, and pure devotional service can remove avidya completely. Desire to please the Lord is an indication whether our sraddha is real. If we are practicing pure bhakti, we obtain all good qualities, the root of these qualities is detachment from the world. Bhakti is a gradual process.

Two characteristics of the real sraddha: 1) complete conviction in the meaning of the sastra; 2) desire to follow this with a lot of respect. Sraddha gives the energy to act and the freedom from doubts. The first step to developing sraddha is our respect towards a devotee. Then we develop a desire to listen to him with a special attitude, which helps us to understand the meaning of sastra. Then we start practicing it without any doubts with a desire to reach the goal. Someone who has real sraddha never offends great devotees, and never acts against the prescriptions of the sastras. Two types of sraddha: 1) svabhaviki or naturally developed by association of devotees; 2) bhalat-utpadita or forced by the social pressure.

Sadhu-sanga means that we obtain sraddha by listening to a devotee, we take initiation from him, that means that we surrender to him. Then we get an instruction from a devotee about sadacar. Then sadhu brings us to the society of like-minded devotees, who are favorable to us, and who can nourish our bhava towards the Lord.

Questions.