Srila Gurudeva in Germany, 2007, giving this lecture
Sadhana bhakti, the practice of devotion to Sri Krsna, is of two kinds – vaidhi-bhakti and raganuga-bhakti *[See Endnote 1].
What is vaidhi-bhakti?
yatra ragan avaptatvat
pravrttir upajayate
sasanenaiva sastrasya
sa vaidha bhaktir ucyate
pravrttir upajayate
sasanenaiva sastrasya
sa vaidha bhaktir ucyate
[“When there
is no attachment or no spontaneous loving service to the Lord, and one
is engaged in the service of the Lord simply out of obedience to the
order of the spiritual master or in pursuance of the scriptures, such
obligatory service is called vaidhi-bhakti.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu
1.2.6)]
Nowadays,
especially in European countries and in Russia, devotees think they are
very ‘rasika’. *[See Endnote 2]. They want rasa (the taste of spiritual
mellows). They want to go up to the top of the tree of prema at once.
They only want madanakhya-bhava (the highest ecstatic devotional love,
situated only in Srimati Radhika). They do not want to follow
vaidhi-bhakti. They don’t like vaidhi-bhakti.
This idea is very dangerous, so be very careful about this. Those who have these ideas are nonsense sahajiya-vaisnavas.