Bhāva is the transcendental ecstatic attachment for Kṛṣṇa which results from perfectly understanding that the person Kṛṣṇa and the name Kṛṣṇa are identical. One who has attained bhāva is certainly not contaminated by material nature. He enjoys transcendental pleasure from bhāva, and when bhāva is intensified it is called love of Godhead. Lord Caitanya told Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī that the holy name of Kṛṣṇa—the mahā-mantra, or "great chant"—enables anyone who chants it to attain the stage of love of Godhead, or intensified bhāva. Love of Godhead is the ultimate human necessity, for when one compares it with other necessities (namely religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation), one can see that these others are most insignificant. When one is absorbed in temporary, conditioned existence, he hankers after sense gratification and liberation. But love of Godhead is the eternal nature of the soul; it is unchangeable, without beginning or end. Therefore neither temporary sense gratification nor liberation can compare with the transcendental nature of love of God. Love of God is the fifth and ultimate goal of human life. Compared with the ocean of transcendental pleasure that is love of God, the conception of impersonal Brahman is no more significant than a drop of water.
Lord Caitanya next explained that His spiritual master had confirmed the validity of the ecstasy He had felt from chanting the holy name of God, and he had also confirmed that the essence of all Vedic literature is the attainment of love of Godhead. Lord Caitanya's spiritual master had said that the Lord was fortunate to have attained love of Godhead. The heart of one who attains such transcendental love becomes very anxious to attain direct contact with the Lord. Feeling such transcendental sentiment, one sometimes laughs, sometimes cries, sometimes sings, sometimes dances like a madman, and sometimes runs hither and thither. In this way there are various ecstatic symptoms manifest: crying, changing bodily color, madness, bereavement, silence, pride, ecstasy and gentleness. Often the person who has attained love of God dances, and such dancing places him in the ocean of the nectar of love of Kṛṣṇa.