[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 13th, 1998, in Australia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 23]
Srila Gurudeva: The beginning of bhakti, the origin of bhakti, is sraddha and sraddha is of two kinds. What is sraddha? Faith. What is that thing? The understanding that, “By practicing krsna-bhakti our whole life will be successful.” Then externally there will a symptom of this sraddha. He will have very deep faith in the words of sastra, sastra-vani. They will think, “What the Bhagavatam is saying is true. What Caitanya-caritamrta is saying is true. What the Vedas are saying, it is true.” He will have so much faith in the words of the Vedas, Upanisads, and Srimad-Bhagavatam. He will also have so much faith in any pure devotee. Then it will be called sraddha, when he has fixed, when he has determined that, “By serving Krsna, our life will be successful. I will not accept anything other than this bhakti. Even if I am cut into pieces, I will not give up bhakti.” Like Haridasa Thakura, like Prahlada Maharaja. He may not be as strong as them, but he is thinking like that. So, he has so much belief in sastra-vakya, the words of sastra. Then it is called sraddha.
From the beginning, this sraddha is of two kinds. If after hearing sastra he is seeing that, “If I am not doing bhakti, krsna-bhakti, if I am not endeavoring in bhakti, then I will have to be punished. I will have to go to hell and there, the Yamadutas will punish me so much. They will finish me. They will make me like dust. So, we must serve Krsna. We should chant, we should hear, we should do arcana and all these things.” Because of fear they follow the orders of sastra and they chant harinama or they go to any Gurudeva for initiation and they take initiation. If by this kind of sraddha we have come to serve Krsna, that sraddha is called vaidhi-sraddha. But when by hearing the very sweet pastimes of Krsna, “Oh, Krsna was a very little baby and when He was naked He used to take some earth in His mouth. He used to steal anything from the neighbors houses, some curd or some makhana, and then the neighbor gopis used to come to Mother Yasoda and complain, ‘Oh, your boy has become so naughty! But He is so beautiful. We all love Him. He is very sweet.’”
Yasoda began to punish Him. One day, Krsna stole something in His own home and Yasoda wanted to catch hold of Him and bind Him. At that time Krsna was weeping bitterly, “Mother, don’t beat Me, don’t beat Me.” These are such sweet pastimes. He is going to herd the cows, grazing them here and there, performing very sweet pastimes. Sometimes He is dancing with the gopis here and there and Krsna at that time told them, “Oh, you are tired?” Sweat was coming and He took His pitambara Himself and began to wipe the sweat from their faces. “Oh, you are tired? I want to massage your feet. Where are your anklebells? I will put them back on for you. Oh, your braids have gone here and there. I will decorate them again.” How lovely these pastimes are. So, hearing all these pastimes, anyone may want to serve Krsna like a friend or like a mother or father, like Yasoda or Nanda Baba. Or more they may want to serve Krsna like the gopis, who used to serve Krsna like their beloved, with their whole love and affection. Hearing this, if anyone wants to serve Krsna in these ways, then a sraddha comes and this is called raga-mayi-sraddha, lobhamayi-sraddha. It is coming from greed and if a man is fortunate by hearing all these things, his bhakti begins from ruci, from taste.