The only thing to remember is that Shree Krishna is my beloved Lord and Master, and I am His servant. In other words, the mind must be emptied of the world and filled only with thoughts of Shree Krishna. And then we must take such a mind to an isolated place. In other words, we must sit somewhere where we are sure to be alone. Privacy is of the utmost importance in the practice of devotion. Why? Because we can only practice devotion in private.
As the Bhagavad Gītā says (in 18.52),
विविक्तसेवी लघ्वाशी…
Viviktasevī laghvāśhī…“Practice devotion in private.”
Why? Because our mind is so mischievous, so turbulent, that if we try to practice devotion in the midst of people, our mind, which is already so impetuous and so rash, will become even more so. And our goal in the practice of sādhana bhakti (devotional practice) is to take our mind away from the world in order to concentrate it on God. So what is the process? What is the scientific method behind it? How can we accomplish this? Let us understand through a wonderful example.
Let us say that you have some milk and you add some water to it. Now the water will get mixed with the milk, and they will become one; they cannot remain separate. And yet there is a way that milk and water can remain separate. How? Make butter out of milk. So what is the process of making butter from milk? First, you need to make yogurt from milk. Then you need to churn this yogurt and make it into butter. Now, if you take this butter and put it in water, it will float. It will remain separate from the water. As long as it was in the form of milk, it could not do this. Similarly, our mind can be compared to milk and the world to water. When we mix our mind, in the form of milk, with the world, in the form of water, the world enters our mind. In other words, we become absolutely absorbed in the world.
So for this reason, we need to practice devotion in private as well, especially in private. Let me elaborate further. If we think of our mind as milk, then through the practice of devotion, one day it will become yogurt. Then we need to churn this yogurt through further practice of devotion in order to make it into butter. And when it becomes butter, we can take it into the world, and it will remain unaffected. Then we will be able to remain in the world; the world remains separate while we are in it.
Just as a lotus remains separate from the mud that it grows in. Although a lotus grows in mud, develops in mud, and stays in mud, yet it retains its qualities of purity, beauty, softness, and so on.
Let us take another example.
A jackfruit has a sticky liquid inside it. If you cut the jackfruit, the liquid goes all over your hands, and no amount of soap or water can get rid of it. So what does a clever person do? He applies oil to his hands before cutting the fruit. This way, the liquid does not stick to the hands.
Similarly, we can think of devotion to Shree Krishna as oil. After applying this oil to our mind, even the worldliest objects will not stick to the mind. Then we will remain separate from the world while living in it. The world will stop having its effect on us in the same proportion as our mind is fixed on God during devotional practice.
