We should begin from the beginning. Each and every person, and even each and every animal, has some objective, and to achieve that objective he chooses a way. That is called sādhya and sādhana. The objective is called sādhya, and the path to achieve that objective, the way, is called sādhana.
If you have not fixed your sādhya, goal, then how you can fix your means to attain it? Therefore, first we must know our objective. What is the goal? What we think may be wrong, but what Śrīmad Bhāgavatam suggests is the established truth—and is for our good.
Our real objective is to somehow serve Kṛṣṇa, to remember Kṛṣṇa, and to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. How can we do this? What services can we render? In the fourth chapter of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, this object—sādhya—has been explained. Service to Kṛṣṇa should be our object. But how can we serve Him? This is the subject to find out.
April 23, 2001 Salt Spring Island, Canada