Someone has read Prem Ras Siddhant (the philosophy of Divine love), someone has listened to the lectures of Shree Maharaj Ji, and they start doing kirtan (devotional singing) and roopdhyan (meditation on the Divine form), but they’re not fully surrendered to the path of devotion yet.
They still think, “Oh, I have to do that pranayam (breath control practice) and I have to do this yagna (Vedic fire ritual).”
Yeah, these things are all described in our scriptures. They’re not bad things, but they’re unnecessary and they default your devotion. Meaning, you haven’t understood yet that Krishna is going to do everything for you, (you) just love Him with raganuga bhakti. You still don’t have that faith. You think,
“Oh, I also have to supplement with this and this and this.”
No. Just do devotion. It’s fine if you want to do some yoga for good health. These kinds of things are not defaulting your faith in the path of devotion. But thinking like,
“Oh, I also have to do this yoga because that awakens this chakra (subtle energy center)”. All of those (practices) are like beginner or elementary practices as compared to devotion.
Once you’ve started practicing raganuga bhakti, that’s your graduate class. You don’t have to keep following the same rules that you did when you were in kindergarten once you’re getting a graduate degree. So once you’ve adopted raganuga bhakti, leave all the other practices. And if we don’t, it means we’re practicing, we’re doing, sharana varana tushti (शरण वरण तुष्टि). Then how will we receive the full grace of Guruji? How will we receive the full effect of the path of devotion?
So there are four conditions of the path of devotion. (1) It must be done with the mind, which means we have to do roopdhyan (meditation on the Divine form). (2) We shouldn’t ask for anything; (we need to be) nishkamata (desirelessness). (3) Our devotion, our love, should be unconditional. (4) And it should be free of any affiliation with any other practice of karm (ritual action), gyan (spiritual knowledge), yog, tapasya (austerity) etc. Number five: on the path of devotion we don’t worship Krishna as God. We love Him as our own beloved, our son, our friend, our master. But we don’t worship Him with that distance and fear and respect that we have when we think of Bhagawan (the Supreme Lord, God).
No. On the path of raganuga bhakti, we make Him our own. And by making Him our own through our loving bhāv (devotional emotion) that we have for Him, we take out that Bhagavata (sense of Divine majesty), that almightiness, which is a part of His personality. We’re basically forgetting about it. This is an integral part of the path of devotion.
So that’s five conditions so far on the path of devotion:
Do it with your mind, which means do roopdhyan.
Nishkamata: don’t ask for anything.
Ahaituki (causeless devotion): love Him unconditionally.
No affiliation with any other practice.
And don’t worship God. Love Krishna as your personal relation, your personal Beloved.
Further ahead, we know (that) there are more conditions like (that) our devotion should be continuous.
