2. Introduction to Sādhana-bhakti

CHAPTER TWO

Introduction to Sādhana-bhakti

The three types of devotional service described in the previous chapter have further subdivisions that reveal increasing levels of spiritual maturity. Rūpa Gosvāmī describes the evolution of spirituality in sādhana-bhakti through to bhāva and prema in the following well-known verse:

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhusaṅgo ’tha bhajana-kriyā tato ’nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ

“In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees. Thereafter, one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits and becomes firmly fixed in devotional service. Thereafter, one develops taste and attachment. This is the way of sādhanabhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles. Gradually emotions intensify, and finally there is an awakening of love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”1

Although prema-bhakti is further enriched in multiple stages from its initial stage, bhāva, to its final attainment, mahābhāva, this verse does not describe them because it concentrates on the stages leading to prema. Similarly, because the subject of this book is sādhana-bhakti, we shall not elaborate on these advanced stages of devotion.

The progressive steps of sādhana-bhakti are faith, association with Vaiṣṇavas, purification of bad habits, steadiness, taste, and attachment.

The nature of these stages is such that each successive stage includes within it the characteristics of previous stages. For example, steadiness, niṣṭhā, has the qualities of faith, association, and purification. However, the quality of the faith in steadiness is more developed and more substantial than the initial faith of a novice. Similarly, the steadiness at attachment is more sublime than that of the devotee experiencing relief from troublesome habits, anartha-nivṛtti. The nature of bhakti is such that its attributes are both retained and refined as a devotee rises from one state of attainment to another. This was also touched upon in the previous chapter when examining the qualities of the three kinds of devotion.

The practice of devotional service is realised through sixty-four major items, of which the first twenty are equally divided into prohibition and recommendation, and the next forty-four are activities of sādhana. Of all devotional practices, five are outstanding and have been given special emphasis by Lord Caitanya:

sādhu-saṅga, nāma-kīrtana, bhāgavata-śravaṇa mathurā-vāsa, śrī-mūrtira śraddhāya sevana

“One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, reside at Mathurā, and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.”2

The purpose of all facets of sādhana is to remember Kṛṣṇa. Such remembrance, smaraṇam, is praised in scriptures such as the Padma Purāṇa:

“Kṛṣṇa is the origin of Lord Viṣṇu. He should always be remembered and never forgotten at any time. All the rules and prohibitions mentioned in the śāstras should be the servants of these two principles.”3

Having considered in a nutshell the stages of sādhana and its primary practices, we may now direct our attention to two kinds of sādhana-bhakti, each defined by their unique incentive.

Devotional activities that are inspired primarily by the injunctions of scripture and the directives of the spiritual master are regulative devotion, or vaidhī-bhakti. Vidhi means “regulations.”

Devotional activities, when undertaken not just because they must be done but because of strong attachment for them, are the nature of spontaneous devotion, rāgānuga-bhakti. In the most general sense rāga means “attachment.” Devotion that is primarily inspired by or follows, anuga, spiritual attachment, rāga, is rāgānuga-bhakti.

Readers may note that a devotee situated at an advanced stage of spontaneous devotion sometimes transgresses the rules of scripture, as attested to by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

“These rāgānuga devotees do not follow the regulative principles of devotional service very strictly.”4

However, such a Vaiṣṇava is at the transcendental stage of devotion, and should not be imitated by conditioned souls. This mature form of rāga is inspired by the service attitude of an eternally liberated associate of the Lord in Vṛndāvana. However, advanced rāgānuga-bhakti such as this is not the subject of this book; readers who want to know more may consult the author’s book entitled The Awakening of Spontaneous Devotional Service.

“How does spontaneous devotion arise in a regulated devotee?”

“By strictly following the ācāryas and practising devotional activities outlined in scripture, a devotee’s heart is purified and his spontaneous inclination is increasingly

awakened, maturing at the stages of taste or attachment. When such a devotee is gradually freed of all material conditioning, he becomes qualified to enter the transcendental state of bhāva.”

In summary, when by some good fortune a living entity awakens his faith in the company of pure Vaiṣṇavas, he embarks upon a wonderful journey of self-realisation in which the grace of guru and Kṛṣṇa unfolds the petals of the lotus of divine love within his heart. While the perfection of prema is the right of every conditioned soul, it cannot be had by any e ort other than the practice of pure devotion as defined in the previous chapter. Moreover, a practitioner must be careful not to fall victim to the pitfalls of lesser or impure devotion which, while relatively auspicious, does not result in the absolute reality, prema. To shed light on these pitfalls, the various types of sādhana-bhakti will be summarised in the following section.

Establishing the existence and definition of pure devotional service implies the existence and definition of impure devotional service. Since pure devotion has been defined as being free of fruitive intent and the desire for liberation, jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, it stands to reason that impure devotion is e ected to greater or lesser degrees by these material motives.

We shall briefly shed light on the impure forms of devotion and how they compare to pure devotion.

As a gardener must know the di erence between weeds and flower ing creepers, so a devotee must discriminate between real devotion and its shadows. Pure devotion will award perfection, but impure devotion will award material attainments, liberation, or, in a best-case scenario, the company of pure devotees.

Great Vaiṣṇavas have used varying terminology to describe devotion that Rūpa Gosvāmī calls covered, āvṛta. Terms like bhaktyabhāsa, miśra-bhakti, and āropa-siddha-bhakti are common. Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda asserts that they all represent mixed devotional service.5

Bhakty-abhāsa means “a shadow of bhakti,” miśra-bhakti means “mixed devotion,” and āropa-siddha-bhakti means “acts to which bhakti is attributed.” An analytical study of these meanings would reveal distinguishing characteristics in each, and within each would be found further divisions and even subdivisions. For such an analytical study, readers may refer to the works of ācāryas like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Jīva Gosvāmī, and this author’s book Śuddha-bhakti-cintāmaṇi. 6

The following is an illustration of two kinds of mixed devotion:

Devotional service is sometimes described in the following three divisions: āropa-siddha-bhakti, saṅga-siddha-bhakti, and svarūpa-siddha-bhakti.

When a person ignorant of his spiritual identity as the Lord’s servant assigns his activities to Kṛṣṇa either for material gain, liberation, or devotion, his conduct is called āropa-siddha-bhakti. Here the word siddha does not mean “perfection” but “accomplished.” Such a worshipper has no real devotion, but he assigns, āropa, his accomplished, siddha, worship to the Lord, and so his o ering bears the name of bhakti.

Jagadānanda Paṇḍita gives the example of a neophyte devotee who does not accept the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa’s deity but merely considers it a statue to which divinity is ascribed.7 Whether he worships for material gain, liberation, or spiritual advancement, that devotee’s worship is of the form of āropa-siddha-bhakti. By association, purification, and learning, such a novice will develop faith in the Lord’s presence within the deity and subsequently make progress on the path of pure devotion.

Jīva Gosvāmī gives the following as an example of āropa-siddhabhakti:

tatra bhāgavatān dharmān śikṣed gurv-ātma-daivataḥ amāyayānuvṛttyā yais tuṣyed ātmātma-do hariḥ

“Accepting the bona fide spiritual master as one’s life and soul and worshipable deity, the disciple should learn from him the process of pure devotional service.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, the soul of all souls, is inclined to give Himself to His pure devotees. Therefore, the disciple should learn from the spiritual master to serve the Lord without duplicity and in such a faithful and favourable way that the Supreme Lord, being satisfied, will o er Himself to the faithful disciple.”8

In addition to āropa, Jīva Gosvāmī describes another kind of impure devotion called saṅga-siddha-bhakti. Those activities that are accomplished, siddha, by being associated with, saṅga, devotion, bhakti, are of the nature of saṅga-siddha-bhakti.

For example, a pure devotee is said to possess twenty-six qualities, like truthfulness, magnanimity, and cleanliness, along with the main quality of exclusive surrender to Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇaika-śaraṇa. By association with this one devotional quality, the other twenty-five acquire a devotional nature that is otherwise inherently absent in them. After all, materialistic people may also be truthful and charitable. Therefore, cultivating religious qualities that are favourable for devotion because they invoke the mode of goodness is, when done in tandem with surrender to Kṛṣṇa, saṅga-siddha-bhakti.

In this regard we may consider the analogy of placing the iron rod of religious activity into the fire of devotional service. The former takes on the quality of the latter. The following is an example of this kind of bhakti:

sarvato manaso ’saṅgam ādau saṅgaṁ ca sādhuṣu dayāṁ maitrīṁ praśrayaṁ ca bhūteṣv addhā yathocitam

“A sincere disciple should learn to dissociate the mind from everything material and positively cultivate association with his spiritual master and other saintly devotees. He should be merciful to those in an inferior position to him, cultivate friendship with those on an equal level, and meekly serve those in a higher spiritual position. Thus he should learn to deal properly with all living beings.”9

About these two kinds of impure devotion it can be said that in āropa-siddha-bhakti, impurities in the form of desires for the fruits of work, mystic powers, and liberation outweigh the presence of devotion, while in saṅga-siddha-bhakti, devotion outweighs the presence of impurities, or rather, non-devotional qualities.

In contrast to these two kinds of impure devotion is the third: svarūpa-siddha-bhakti, which is pure devotional service.

The previously mentioned primary aspects of unmotivated sādhana—such as chanting and hearing, the moods of ecstatic devotion, and the subsequent devotional acts they inspire—are the very essence, svarūpa, of pure devotional service.

The obvious di erence between svarūpa-siddha-bhakti and the other two is that it fulfils the criterion of pure devotional service and as such has a direct relationship with Kṛṣṇa. It is a manifestation of the Lord’s internal potency. Āropa-siddha-bhakti and saṅgasiddha-bhakti are referred to in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as kaitava-dharma, cheating religion.10 Hence svarūpa-siddha-bhakti is akaitava-dharma.

Lord Kapila speaks a well-known verse extolling the characteristics of this honest devotion at the apex of its spontaneity:

mad-guṇa-śruti-mātreṇa mayi sarva-guhāśaye mano-gatir avicchinnā yathā gaṅgāmbhaso ‘mbudhau

lakṣaṇaṁ bhakti-yogasya nirguṇasya hy udāhṛtam ahaituky avyavahitā yā bhaktiḥ puruṣottame

“The manifestation of unadulterated devotional service is exhibited when one’s mind is at once attracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Who is residing in everyone’s heart. Just as the water of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional ecstasy, uninterrupted by any material condition, flows towards the Supreme Lord.”11

Our purpose in this section is to shed light on what Rūpa Gosvāmī means by covered devotion and to show why it is inferior to uncovered pure devotion, śuddha-bhakti, also known as svarūpa-siddha-bhakti.

Pure devotion is direct and leads in stages to spontaneous devotion and the awakening of the soul’s inherent relationship with Kṛṣṇa. It is characterised by the transcendental teachings of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and a life of renunciation that engages everyone and everything in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

On the other hand, both āropa-siddha-bhakti and saṅga-siddhabhakti are indirect processes that may, under the right circumstances, bring practitioners to svarūpa-siddha-bhakti. However, in the absence of faith in pure devotees, practitioners may stagnate and remain, at best, materialistic neophytes and pious religionists. Indeed, without faith in pure devotees, both āropa-siddha and saṅga-siddha novices may readily become overwhelmed by Māyāvādī misconceptions and forfeit the opportunity for pure devotion.

While we have described three primary forms of devotion practised by conditioned souls, there are in actuality as many forms of bhakti as there are combinations of the modes of nature—Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions eighty-one.12 Lord Kapila elaborates in this way:

“O noble lady, there are multifarious paths of devotional service in terms of the di erent qualities of the executor.”13

To followers like Sanātana Gosvāmī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught the process of svarūpa-siddha-bhakti, emphasising the importance of keeping company with advanced Vaiṣṇavas in order to avoid the pitfalls posed by the likes of āropa-siddha and saṅga-siddha. The Lord said,

sādhu-saṅge kṛṣṇa-bhaktye śraddhā yadi haya bhakti-phala ‘prema’ haya, saṁsāra yāya kṣaya

“By associating with a devotee, one awakens his faith in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Because of devotional

service, one’s dormant love for Kṛṣṇa awakens, and thus one’s material, conditioned existence comes to an end.”14

To conclude, the purpose of Saṅkalpa-kaumudī is to help guide Vaiṣṇavas on the path of svarūpa-siddha-bhakti whilst avoiding the pitfalls of its impure counterparts. It is our ardent hope that this purpose shall be realised.

Notes

1. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.15–16, as cited in Śrī Caitanyacaritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 23.14–15. 2. Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.128. 3. Padma Purāṇa, as cited in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhyalīlā 22.113. 4. The Nectar of Devotion, chapter 16, page 125. 5. Jaiva-dharma, chapter 12, pages 199–200. 6. Śuddha-bhakti-cintāmaṇi, chapters 3 and 4. 7. Prema-vivarta, chapter 17, page 73. 8. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.22. 9. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.23. 10. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.2. 11. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.11–12. 12. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.10, purport. 13. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.7. 14. Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.49.