sadhana bhakti | साधना भक्ति
sadhana bhakti (Devanagari: साधना भक्ति ISO15919: sādhanā bhakti) is preliminary devotion. Sadhana bhakti is the means to cleanse the antahkarna, so that Guru can bestow siddha bhakti.
Sadhana bhakti is mainly of two kinds:
The most acclaimed and widely accepted practices to practise sadhana bhakti was propounded by Saint Prahalad. He mentioned nine ways of doing bhakti. Together they are called navadha bhakti.
Out of all these three are most important for spiritual growth namely shravanam - hearing, kirtanam - congregational chanting, smarana - remembrance.
In these three practices of devotion smarana is the life force of all devotion. Jagadguruttam Swami Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj states that smarana of Divine form of your Beloved Radha Krishna is called rupadhyana.
Some Acharya of bhakti further divide this sadhana bhakti into two stages
- sadhana bhakti - Practicing to meditate on chosen Deity.
- bhava bhakti - Practise has started yielding results and one can effortlessly meditate on chosen Deity.
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REFERENCE
Bhakti Shatak - Hundred Gems of Devotion - an in-depth analysis