If a beginner aspirant, someone interested in a Divine path and devotion in bhakti, comes to a Saint and asks, “Please teach me sadhana, tell me what I should do to realize God?” So on the first day if the Saint tells him that ‘okay, you have to chant the Divine name of Radha Krishna and you also have to do roopdhyan and then you also have to have those feelings of deep feelings of longing and yearning’ and and all of that.
So the first-time comer will come for the first time only and never come back because he will be freaked; he will get nervous; he will think like, “I have to do all of this? Is it enough that I cry for the world all the time? I have to do all of that? Oh, I cannot do it. It's beyond me. I cannot do it!” So he will get scared.
So on the first day, Guruji says, “Kirtan, just chant the Divine name.”
“Okay. Okay, Guruji, I will!” So he chants the Divine name and then he comes back to his Guru and says,
“Well, I've been singing the Divine name but I'm not experiencing anything, not getting anywhere, just singing ‘Radhe Radhe, Radhe Govind’.”
So Guruji says, “Okay, so what you have to do, my son, you have to do roopdhyan. You have to remember the Divine form along with the chanting.”
“Yes. Okay, Guruji, I will do.” So he goes away.
After some time, he comes back, and he says, “Guruji, because this is just the beginning, my mind is always running and drifting and it's so fickle. So I'm not really able to put my mind and do that roopdhyan and that remembrance!”
So Guruji says, “Okay, do one more thing. You chant the Divine name and you do roopdhyan and now you add one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“You add those feelings of longing and yearning for their Divine vision. Do that.”
“Okay, Guruji!”
So our Guru helps us, holds our hand and takes us step by step and inspires us in devotion on this path of bhakti, but the siddhant or the philosophy remains the same. It does not change, and the philosophy is that while remembering or chanting the Divine name, we must do roopdhyan.
That is why Goswami Tulsidharji says, “जासु नाम सुमिरत एक बारा। उतरहिं नर भवसिंधु अपारा॥” (jāsu nām sumirat ek bārā. Utarahin nar bhavasindhu apārā.)" That he says that ‘when we add roopdhyan to our sadhana, then when we reach that stage in our devotion when we would not even be able to sing or chant the Divine name fully’ (ja sunam sumirat ikbar utarahi). We would transcend this ocean of maya forever, for eternity, and reach our goal of Divine love, perfect love, Radha Krishna love.
So remembrance, roopdhyan, is essential.
