Stages of ragānuga sādhana bhakti practice

Stages of ragānuga sādhana bhakti practice

When the disciple comes to taste the games of the Divine Couple Rādhā-Kṛṣna,
and desires to enter into those games by disclosing that desire to the guru,
then the guru reveals his spiritual form as well as the spiritual forms - the pranali siddha of
of the gurus in the disciplic chain - guru parampara of which he is a member and reaches up to the associates of Shri Caitanya, who themselves have spiritual forms in Kṛṣna -līlā (Kṛṣṇa's  games in Vrindavan).

In Sri Harinam-cintamani, Chapter 15, entitled Bhajana-praṇālī, Śrīla Bhaktivinod Thakur gives details of how Ragānuga Sadhana takes place:

pañcadaśa pariccheda
bhajana-praṇālī

ei ekādaśa bhāva sampūrṇa sādhane |
pañca daśā lakṣya haya sādhaka jīvane ||59|||
śravaṇa varaṇa āra smaraṇa āpana |
sampatti e pañca-vidha daśāya gaṇana ||60|||

Sādhana that is related to the 11 characteristics (ekādaśa bhāva) (received in Siddha-praṇālī initiation) is performed in 5 progressive stages (pañca daśā):

(1) śravaṇ-daśā (the stage of listening to Kṛṣṇa's games in Vrindavan),

(2) varaṇ-daśā (the stage of accepting the Siddha-praṇālī spiritual initiation),

(3) smaraṇ-daśā (the stage of remembering the divine plays),

(4) bhāva-apan-daśā (the stage of the appearance of spiritual love), and

(5) prema-sampatti-daśā (the stage of the perfection of the attainment of spiritual love - prema).

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