[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on July 8th, 1997, in Holland, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 21]
Srila Gurudeva: Without initiation, you cannot have all these things. You will search here and there for a bonafide guru. But we cannot select one ourselves. We should pray to Krsna for this. Then Krsna anyhow will help bring us to a pure devotee, a bhakta, and we will know, “Oh, this is a bonafide guru.” Then we will go and hear and test him for one year or for so many months. We will look after his character, his behaviors, his fondness for money, his lustiness. We will see, “Is he following himself what he is telling or not? Is he practicing it himself or not? Is he only cheating others saying, ‘You should chant,’ but he himself never chants?” I know so many devotees, they preach like this, “Oh, you should chant, remember and hear hari-katha.” But he himself never has taken his mala here, never. He never hears hari-katha. He cannot tell hari-katha. He can only speak about problems and problems. This problem, that problem and this and that.
He will search for any bonafide guru and then take initiation, giving up his heart, mind, soul, and senses to his lotus feet. Then guru will tell him, the guru will see that, “Oh, he is doing so much. He is honest and sincere.” He will give him initiation and then he will tell him all the processes of devotion, bhajana-anga, that you should this and this. Bhajana-anga. Then by doing so, by following his Gurudeva’s order and serving Gurudeva, he will know all these things and try to chant, remember and engage in all the limbs of bhakti. Then after some time he will see that he is progressing gradually. He is giving up all his bad things and anarthas are going.
When nistha will come, where is his nistha? It is not in Krsna. His nistha is only to the process of bhakti, his nistha will be there. His sraddha is also for the words of Guru and sastra. He will have nistha, nistha for chanting, remembering, hearing, and all other things. After nistha, then ruci will come. Ruci to whom will come? Not to Krsna. Ruci will come for chanting. There will be no sleep, no alasya, idleness. With great honor and with so much energy he will hear all these things. That is called ruci. After that will come asakti. At that, he cannot be without chanting, remembering and hearing. Never can he be. After that, that mood will come, rati will come. It will come from Goloka Vrndavana, from anyone's heart like Yasoda, Nanda Baba, Sridama, Sudama, or any gopi like Rupa Manjari or others. That is called suddha-sattva.
Up to this, these are sadhana. After that, it is not sadhana. Prema has no sadhana. But with the gopis or Vrajavasis, this prema will increase. Then prema will come to sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga, bhava, mahabhava and after that, so many things. So these are our objects. But we will have to do something. We will have to practice. Not only something, we will have to practice like Rupa-Raghunatha.