The First Stages of Devotion
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Now this  sādhana-bhakti , or practice of devotional service, can also be divided into two parts. The first part is called regulative principles: one has to follow these different regulative principles by the order of the spiritual master, or on the strength of authoritative scriptures, and there can be no question of refusal. That is called  vaidhi , or regulated. One has to do it without any argument. Another part of  sādhana-bhakti  is called  rāgānugā .  Rāgānugā  refers to the point at which, by following the regulative principles, one becomes a little more attached to Kṛṣṇa and executes devotional service out of natural love. For example, a person engaged in devotional service may be ordered to rise early in the morning and offer  ārātrika , which is a form of Deity worship. In the beginning, by the order of his spiritual master, one rises early in the morning and offers  ārātrika , but then he develops real attachment. When he gets this attachment, he automatically tries to decorate the Deity and prepare different kinds of dresses and thinks of different plans to execute his devotional service nicely. Although it is within the category of practice, this offering of loving service is spontaneous. So the practice of devotional service,  sādhana-bhakti , can be divided into two parts—namely, regulative and spontaneous.
Rūpa Gosvāmī defines the first part of devotional practice, or  vaidhi-bhakti , as follows: “When there is no attachment or no spontaneous loving service to the Lord, and one is engaged in the service of the Lord simply out of obedience to the order of the spiritual master or in pursuance of the scriptures, such obligatory service is called  vaidhi-bhakti .”
These principles of  vaidhi-bhakti  are also described in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , Second Canto, 1st Chapter, verse 35, where Śukadeva Gosvāmī instructs the dying Mahārāj Parīkṣit as to his course of action. Mahārāj Parīkṣit met Śukadeva Gosvāmī just a week before his death, and the King was perplexed as to what should be done before he was to pass on. Many other sages also arrived there, but no one could give him the proper direction. Śukadeva Gosvāmī, however, gave this direction to him as follows: “My dear King, if you want to be fearless in meeting your death next week (for actually everyone is afraid at the point of death), then you must immediately