Prabhupada mentions (NoD 2) that “Every living entity under the spell of the material energy is held to be in an abnormal condition of madness.” The original position of the soul is a position of love for Krsna, but somehow or other we forget this and somehow or other become absorbed in material desires and activities.
Sadhana-bhakti is the process of regulated devotional service, offered as a way to gradually elevate our consciousness from this absorption into matter back into our original attitude of loving service to Krsna.
By definition, we start practicing the process of sadhana-bhakti, or vaidhī-bhakti when there is no attachment or love for the Lord. We get in contact with devotees, accept a spiritual master, and out of obedience to the guru we, liking or not, execute a process of regulated service that gradually purifies us.
As Prabhupada mentions (Nod 2):
“Rūpa Gosvāmī defines the first part of devotional practice, or vaidhī-bhakti, as follows: “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 vaidhī-bhakti.”
On the other extreme, there is rāgānugā-bhakti, or rāga-bhakti, which is spontaneous loving service. No one has to remember the gopis that they need to serve Krsna, they do it automatically out of love Just like a mother doesn’t need a list of rules and regulations in order to remember to feed her child, a devotee situated in this platform serves Krsna out of love, and there is no need to fix a list of rules on the wall to remember him.
On NoD 15, Prabhupada mentions:
“Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī has defined rāgānugā-bhakti as spontaneous attraction for something while completely absorbed in thoughts of it, with an intense desire of love. Devotional service executed with such feelings of spontaneous love is called rāgānugā-bhakti.”
When we compare these two levels, it’s quite obvious that the spontaneous attraction of rāgānugā-bhakti is higher than regulated service by following the rules and regulations of sadhana-bhakti. If we had to choose one of the two based on these descriptions, the choice would be quite obvious. We would want to practice rāga-bhakti and not vaidhī-bhakti.
The point is that it’s impossible to automatically rise from a mundane platform, where we are attracted to sinful things like sex or intoxication into a platform of pure and spontaneous devotional service. There are some pastimes that describe devotees who do so out of causeless mercy, but that’s not something ordinary that one can do out of his own will.
Therefore, although rāgānugā-bhakti is the desired goal, we can’t reach it without the starway of sadhana-bhakti, just like one can’t become a doctor without studying in the university. The two form thus a single, continuous process, and not two different, rival processes. We start in a sinful platform, are elevated to a pure platform by the process of regulated devotional service, vaidhī-bhakti or sadhana-bhati, and from this pure platform we can gradually develop love and attachment for Krsna, and thus gradually ascend to the platform of spontaneous devotional service, defined as rāgā-bhakti or rāgānugā-bhakti. Prabhupada also mentions the term rāgānugā-sadhana-bhakti, which he defines as a subdivision of sādhana-bhakti, when one “by following the regulative principles, one becomes a little more attached to Kṛṣṇa and executes devotional service out of natural love.”
In a lecture on SB 3.26.41 (Bombay, January 16, 1975), Prabhupada mentions: “Vaidhī-bhakti means discharging devotional service under regulative principles. So without vaidhī-bhakti, you cannot jump to the rāga-bhakti.”
He explains this point in more detail in NoD 16:
“Therefore, in the beginning, everyone should strictly follow the regulative principles of devotional service according to the injunctions of the scriptures and the spiritual master. Only after the stage of liberation from material contamination can one actually aspire to follow in the footsteps of the devotees in Vṛndāvana.”
There is no question of rāgānugā-bhakti while one is still materially contaminated. The so-called “rāgānugā-bhakti” of a conditioned soul is nothing more than following the dictations of the mind. When one goes on this path, he will inevitably become some kind of sahajiya, concocting some pseudo-spiritual process, or falling into sinful habits while imagining himself as one of Krsna’s eternal associates. On NoD 16, Prabhupada alerts to both possibilities.
“It has been seen that a so-called devotee proclaims himself a follower of Nanda, Yaśodā or the gopīs, while at the same time his abominable attraction for mundane sex life is visible. Such a manifestation of divine love is mere imitation and has no value. When one is actually spontaneously attracted to the loving principles of the gopīs, there will be found no trace of any mundane contamination in his character.”
“In this connection, we should be careful about the so-called siddha-praṇālī. The siddha-praṇālī process is followed by a class of men who are not very authorized and who have manufactured their own way of devotional service. They imagine that they have become associates of the Lord simply by thinking of themselves like that. This external behavior is not at all according to the regulative principles. The so-called siddha-praṇālī process is followed by the prākṛta-sahajiyā, a pseudosect of so-called Vaiṣṇavas. In the opinion of Rūpa Gosvāmī, such activities are simply disturbances to the standard way of devotional service.”
To be completely free from all material contamination while still living in a material body is not very common, even for advanced devotees, therefore Prabhupada gives a simple formula to avoid the trap of sahajiysm so many aspiring devotees fall into:
“The idea is that he should always continue to act as a neophyte devotee as long as his material body is there. Activities in devotional service under regulative principles must be followed even by the pure devotee. But when he realizes his actual position in relationship with the Lord, he can, along with the discharging of regulative service, think within himself of the Lord under the guidance of a particular associate of the Lord, and develop his transcendental sentiments in following that associate.” (Nod 16)
Even if one finally achieves the cherished platform of spontaneous attraction to the Lord, one should not advertise himself, nor try to prematurely bring neophytes to the same platform. Prabhupada also mentions that on NoD 16:
“A devotee who is actually advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who is constantly engaged in devotional service, should not manifest himself, even though he has attained perfection. “
On the opposite, one should continue externally following the regulated principles, while internally, “along with the discharging of regulative service”, follow the path of spontaneous attraction, by thinking within himself of the Lord under the guidance of a particular associate of the Lord, and develop his transcendental sentiments in following that associate.
Different from the unregulated, hippie-like process advocated by sahajiyas, this bonafide process is based on reality, and not just on mental concoction. A devotee who, being genuinely attracted to Krsna and pure of material contamination, serves in his mind, actually serves in the spiritual world.
As Prabhupada also mentions: “It is said by Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, “When one is actually liberated from material contamination, he can always remember an eternal devotee in Vṛndāvana in order to love Kṛṣṇa in the same capacity. And developing such an aptitude, one will always live in Vṛndāvana, even within his mind.”