Only a pure devotee can recognise the actual symptoms of bhakti.

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Ruci rati asakti and bhava are the preliminary stages before prema , so this ruci or taste comes from high class association , like a touchstone one becomes transformed by coming into touch with someone who is charged with the ecstatic and grave emotions of a pure heart wherein the divine couple reside . Ofc our reaction will depend partly on our purity but essentially ones purity is unnecessary when coming into contact with a pure soul . So our dusty anartha laden consciousness or cetana can be cleansed ceto darpanam marjanam by the pure chanters of the holy name and if we follow such chanters in good association we also, can realize our own potential .
If we can develop such a greed or a taste , rasa bhava matih kriyatam yadi kuto ‘pi labhyate tatra laulyam then very quickly one becomes the recipient of the highest benediction or pure Krsna Consciousness , so ones spontaneity – asakti ones inner most desires or rati , ones sentiments – bhavas all fall in line like a danda to those lotus feet which bestow these moods , desires and the precocious elements of prema bhakti . Once the lord is firmly established in the heart or realised , such a bhakta never returns to this material world , but words are cheap and discussing giving our hearts to the lord vis his pure devotees may attempt to summarise such a process in a couple of paragraphs, but it fails miserably unless one is inspired to change .
We should pray to those pure representatives of Srimati Radharani who are coming in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Rupa Goswami that we can get even a drop of their mercy in this lifetime and endeavor to serve those pure devotees who have realised all this within their hearts and are chanting pure nama prabhu… hi jivadhau svayam sphuraty adau .
WHY WE MAY TAKE BIRTH AGAIN
” Lady devotee: “We recently had a member of our family pass away. She was initiated by Srila Prabhupada. She had dedicated her whole life to serving Krishna. She had very few possessions. She was a very humble devotee. I’m wondering, when a devotee very suddenly passes away before old age, due to poor health or some circumstance, is that person going to be with Krishna? Are they taking birth immediately again in another body? Or, is there a subtle body that stays until the gross body is cremated? I’m not knowing what happens.
Srila Narayana Maharaja: Continue what you are saying.
Brajanatha Prabhu: She’s asking, is the process not complete until the ashes are given to the Ganges? Or, will that soul reach her destination before or after the ashes of the gross body are offered to the Ganges or Yamuna? Or, what is the destination?
Srila Narayana Maharaja: It depends on the devotee. It depends on whether she has really taken initiation or not – in the real, true sense. It depends on whether one is chanting krsna-nama properly and purely or not. Was she realizing her position or not? Has she attained nistha (the stage of steadiness in bhakti) or not? Has she attained the last fraction of bhakti – sraddha? If one actually has sraddha, he will think, “Even if anyone will cut me in so many pieces, I cannot give up harinama. Was there even a transcendental sraddha? Was there some desire to serve Krishna in the real sense? Perhaps she died without this. She was a pious person, and doing some sukrti. Perhaps she wanted to always have good association. She was doing so much book distribution, and making money and giving it to Srila Swami Maharaja out of duty, but she never had a high class of association. Perhaps her sraddha was still weak. In that case, whether her body was burned or put in a grave, there is no harm.
She may then take birth anywhere, in an ordinary devotee’s house. Do you understand? In the home of a general devotee. There she may hear from childhood that only by serving Krishna can anyone be happy. Otherwise one can never be happy. In this next birth, she is chanting from the very beginning, but not purely. There are so many worldly desires and her heart is still not pure. So many anarthas, unwanted things, are there. Yet, gradually, she will come in the association of a somewhat higher devotee. There she will understand what is sraddha. From the beginning she will have a better chance to attain nistha. In her past life she had never attained nistha. Do you know what is nistha? I know you don’t know.
Lady devotee: I don’t remember.
Srila Narayana Maharaja: Nistha (steadiness in bhakti). By intelligence one will determine, “I must chant, because there is no other way for success.” At this stage one is not realized, but still there is a very strong determination. He will not think, “Should I marry; should I not marry? Narada never married, but the father of Sukadeva, Vyasadeva, did. What should I do?” In sastra it has been written that this world is like a well. What is that well? To marry and to be very attached to one’s family. If one is attached to Krishna, will he be attached to this world? Without such attachment to Krishna, one is in dilemna about what to do: “Should I remain in my house with my father, mother, wife and children, or should I give up all these things and go to high-class association, always chanting, hearing, and developing my faith?” He’s now in a dilemna. This is not nistha-bhakti.
Do you understand? Nistha will come, but it is not there yet. If one dies in this stage, what will happen? He was without nistha. Rather, he was in dilemna about what to do. In that case, in his next birth he will seek a higher class of association, and now he may have nistha. Now he has determined, “Oh, I should be in worldly life and, like the Pandavas, like the gopis, I will do bhajana.” Or, he will determine, “I will be like Sukadeva Gosvami, I will not marry.” He has decided; he has come to a conclusion: “And I will always serve Vaisnavas.” In his second birth Bharata Maharaja decided, “I will never go to worldly desires, or anything which can cause attachment and make me give up attachment to Krishna.” He has decided this.
Suppose a taste has come for chanting and remembering hari-katha. Ruci, a taste has come, and suppose that he dies in the stage of ruci. What will become of him? Now he has come in the standard of bhakti. If he dies at this stage Krishna will manage that he will go to any high class of guru. There, serving him and always hearing from him, asakti, attachment for Krishna, may come.
If he dies in the stage of asakti, what will become of him? Oh, he will surely take birth in the house of a very exalted Vaisnava. In Gita it has been told, “Sucinam srimatam gehe.” From there he will practice his sadhana only for attaining bhava-bhakti. From that stage it may be that in one birth, two births, a hundred births, or a thousand births, he may attain suddha-prema, suddha-sattva, and that is rati (bhava).
If anyone dies in the stage of rati, he has nothing to do. Surely he will become like Sri Sukadeva Gosvami, Sri Narada Gosvami, Srila Rupa Gosvami, and Srila Sanatana Gosvami. From the beginning he will start his suddha-sattva bhakti, his rati or bhava. Then, if he is qualified in rati, matured in rati, what will happen? At once, when he leaves his body, Yogamaya at once manages that his soul should go to Mahaprabhu. He will go to the planet and place where the lila, pastimes, of Mahaprabhu are going on. There he will chant and remember with a high class of rati, in the association of Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Svarupa Damodara and Sri Raya Ramananda.
If he gives up his body after he has matured in this rati, Yogamaya will take him where Krishna’s pastimes are going on, and he will come in the womb of any gopi -according to his taste, or in other words, according to his specific relationship with Krishna. If he is in a relationship of friendship, he will come like a brother of Sridama, Subala, Madhumangala, and others like them. If he is in the relationship of vatsalya, parental affection, then he will come like Nanda Baba and Yasoda. For perfecting any of these relationships he will have to come through the womb of any gopi. And, if he is seriously following Srila Rupa Gosvami – if he is not only raganuga, but especially rupanuga, then he will come in the womb of a special gopi. When he (she) grows up she will be married anywhere, especially in Yavat, and she will be associated with a high class of kayavuha (a gopi who is a bodily expansion) of Srimati Radhika. If that association is closed to her, then the door of her home will be closed, or locked, and she will give up her life and meet Krishna by her separation mood. And, if she is associated with nitya-siddha, gopis, then she will meet Him very quickly. If there is a trace of unwanted things, if there are any children, one cannot join rasa by that body, not even if one has come by the womb of a gopi. Never. Her husband will check her, and she will give up this body. Of course it is not that one can give up the body; there is no death there. So she gives up that mood that, “He is my child and he is my husband.” At that time all obstacles will go away, and Yogamaya will then take her to rasa, and take her to serve the gopis.”
Srila Gurudeva: Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Goswami Maharaj Maharaja
(House Darsan, Berkeley, California, USA, June 10th, 2000.)

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