[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 13th, 1998, in Australia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 23]
Srila Gurudeva: If anyone is going to practice bhakti from the beginning, then according to their stage it is called sadhana-bhakti, bhava-bhakti, or prema-bhakti. But actually in all stages, bhakti is prema-bhakti. The mixture of bhakti like aropa-siddha-bhakti or sanga-siddha-bhakti are actually not bhakti. What is aropa-siddha-bhakti?
Devotee: Aropa-siddha-bhakti is when one performs some activity and they call it bhakti when it is not. For instance, one may be doing some farming activity and in that activity, they offer the fruits of that to Krsna. They call that bhakti, but actually it is not bhakti. They are only superimposing bhakti on that activity. Bhakti is sravanam, kirtanam, visnu-smaranam, pada-sevanam, etc, the nine-fold limbs of bhakti.
Srila Gurudeva: Yes. And what is sanga-siddha-bhakti?
Devotee: Sanga-siddha-bhakti means the cultivation of qualities that are helpful for bhakti. For example, it is said that a Vaisnava has twenty-six qualities. Of these qualities, the svarupa-laksana (intrinsic characteristic) is krsnaika-sarana, to be completely surrendered to Krsna. But the other twenty-five qualities, such as being grave, being friendly to all living entities, being poetic, being silent, etc, if one is cultivating these qualities and also practicing bhakti, then they may be somewhat helpful, but they are only considered to be like the family members of bhakti.
Srila Gurudeva: Really they are practicing sanga-siddha-bhakti, not suddha-bhakti, pure bhakti. Like anyone may have no anger. This is a good quality. He is very generous, broadminded, he may be so humble, but if he does not have bhakti, he may even be a mayavadi, having all these qualities. So these qualities are not pure bhakti in themselves. If they are connected with bhakti, then they should be treated like sanga-siddha-bhakti, otherwise not. Pure bhakti is where there is no worldly desire. We have some extraneous desire, so when we practice bhakti, our bhakti is not pure bhakti. It is covered with some knowledge, whether it be mayavada or even not mayavada like knowing that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, knowing He is sarvajna, He is doing everything. Even this is not pure bhakti.