CHAPTER ONE
Bhakti and Its Three Forms The topic of devotional service is a confidential one and therefore generally spoken of in gatherings of qualified Vaiṣṇavas. Lord Kṛṣṇa encourages devotees to share their realisations about this confidential subject while also cautioning them not to disclose its secrets to sense enjoyers, envious persons, or non-devotees. He says, “This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me. For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.”1 Throughout Vedic literature, men and women are advised to adopt different kinds of purification, methods of self-realisation, and paths to liberation. Yet these pursuits are but varied ways to connect with devotional service and are not in and of themselves a means to ultimate perfection. That qualification is the exclusive prerogative of pure bhakti! Therefore, the great authority on devotion, Nārada, has proclaimed that every form of spiritual practice is absolutely dependent on devotional service: jīvanti jantavaḥ sarve yathā mātaram āśritāḥ tathā bhaktiṁ samāśritya sarvā jīvanti siddhayaḥ 35
