[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 13th, 1998, in Australia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 23]
Srila Gurudeva: There should be any aim and object of our life. We know that all the living beings, they want happiness. They want pure happiness, not a mixture of happiness and unhappiness. This can only be achieved if you are serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the embodiment of love and affection. If you are serving Him, then it can be achieved. So, our aim and object of life is love and affection for Krsna. The goal of our life should be love and affection for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. Then we will think, how can I practice this? How can I achieve this goal? If the goal is not ascertained, if it is not fixed, then we cannot decide the way or the means to achieve that goal. Never can we decide. If you want water and you are going to fire, you cannot have water. This raga towards Krsna, this affection towards Krsna, especially the affection of the gopis towards Krsna, this is the highest goal of life. All of their endeavors and activities with all of their senses is only to satisfy and please Krsna. This is the way to achieve this goal. But, in this world, for neophyte devotees, for beginners, this bhakti or this love and affection is divided into three sections: Sadhana-bhakti, bhava-bhakti, and then prema-bhakti. I don’t know the words in English for this. Sadhana-bhakti means devotional service in practice, at the time of practice. Bhakti is the same, there is no different bhakti, bhakti is one: that love and affection, pure love and affection. But when we are practicing to have this bhakti, this is called like sadhana.
I am not going now into detail, I am only telling that our goal should be this love and affection, to please Krsna always as the gopis are pleasing Krsna by all their endeavors. This is the object. How can we practice this? How can we achieve this? Raghunatha dasa Gosvami has told so many things in his teachings. I started it last year, I explained something about the first sloka, only to give some idea. I wanted to explain the second sloka, but I will give some idea of the first sloka. Without having some idea of the first sloka, you cannot touch the second sloka. So, first of all you should know, what is bhakti? It is a spontaneous mood of love towards Krsna, serving Him by all your senses, by body, mind, tongue, and also by moods. Not moods of the mind, but that mood of the soul. If you are practicing bhakti to please Krsna, it should not be covered with fruitive karma. Also it should not be covered with knowledge. Knowledge is also of so many kinds. Even this knowledge, the knowledge that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He has so much opulence, we will have to forget this also. Jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.3). And there should be no worldly desire at all. Only one desire should be there: to increase bhakti. Only to serve Krsna and His devotees, His associates, Guru and Vaisnavas, like this. Then it is called uttama-bhakti.