20
The Nectar of Devotion
practice. Actually there is no such practice. When we wish to develop our innate capacity for devotional service there are certain processes which, by our accepting and executing them, will cause that dormant capacity to be invoked. Such practice is called  sādhana-bhakti .
Every living entity under the spell of material energy is held to be in an abnormal condition of madness. In the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  it is said: “Generally, the conditioned soul is mad because he is always engaged in activities which are the causes of bondage and suffering.” Spirit soul in its original condition is joyful, blissful, eternal and full of knowledge. Only by his implication in material activities has he become miserable, temporary and full of ignorance. This is due to  vikarma .  Vikarma  means actions which should not be done. Therefore, we must practice  sādhana-bhakti —which means to offer  maṅgala-ārātrika  (Deity worship) in the morning, to refrain from certain material activities, to offer obeisances to the spiritual master and to follow many other rules and regulations which will be discussed here one after another. These practices will help one to become cured of madness. As a man’s mental disease is cured by the directions of a psychiatrist, so this  sādhana-bhakti  cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of  māyā , material illusion.
Nārada Muni mentions this  sādhana-bhakti  in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , Seventh Canto, 1st Chapter, 30th verse. He says there to King Yudhiṣṭhira: “My dear King, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa by any means.” That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is the duty of the  ācārya , the spiritual master, to find the ways and means for his disciple to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of  sādhana-bhakti .
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us an authorized program for this purpose, centered around the chanting of the  Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra . This chanting has so much power that it immediately attaches one to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of  sādhana-bhakti . Somehow or other, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa. The great saint Ambarīṣa Mahārāj, although a responsible king, fixed his mind on Kṛṣṇa, and similarly anyone who tries to fix his mind in this way will very rapidly make progress in successfully reviving his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness.