Bhakti means actual love. Bhakti, not the formality, actual love for God, comes when you start practicing devotion with the grace of that Saint.
The Saint’s grace is always received internally. So don’t look for things like,
“Did my bank account increase since I started following this Saint?”
“Did I have fewer health problems?”
“Did my kids get better scores at school?”
“Did I get a promotion at work?”
“Did my stocks perform better?”
Don’t look for those things. That has no concern with the Guru (spiritual teacher). That has everything to do with your own past karma (actions and their results) from your past life.
… हानि लाभु जीवनु मरनु जसु अपजसु बिधि हाथ I
… Hāni lābh jīvan maran jas apjas bidh hāth.- Ramayan
You have to undergo the consequences of the good and bad you’ve done in your past lives. So you have a certain prarabdh (destined karma) defined for you in this life. Certain things in your life are controlled by that destiny which is the result of the good and bad you’ve done in past lifetimes.
So most of these things that we look to the Saint to try to help us with, either they are already determined by our destiny, or it’s something we can accomplish with effort if we just do it, or if we don’t put the effort in, it won’t happen. So either it’s in our hands to do in this life, or it’s determined by destiny, but in either case, it has nothing to do with the grace of a Saint.
The grace of a Saint is meant to be experienced internally as love for God. The transmuted grace of the Saint is experienced as love for Radha Krishna (the Divine Couple). That’s what you should be looking for. How can I get that thing?
The Saint has an ocean of prem (Divine love) for Radha Krishna in his heart. How can I start getting that and experiencing that?
When we have this outlook, then we won’t get fooled by any fake guru. Because we’re looking for the right thing.
And when Shree Krishna (the Supreme Divine) arranges it for us to meet a true saint, we’ll be looking for the right thing. We’ll be able to experience that saint’s grace and start following this path of devotion.
