yugala carana sevi, nirantara ei bhavi,
anuragi thakibo sadaya.
sadhana bhavibo yaha, siddha-dehe pabo taha
raga pathera ei se upaya (55)

“I will always think of the devotional service of the lotus-feet of the Divine Pair, and I will always remain attached to that. Whatever I think of during my spiritual practice, I will attain in my siddha deha when I reach perfection. This is the means of raga bhakti.”

The similarity of practice and perfection

Sudhakanika vyakhya —
The varieties and the results of the seva cintana of the raganugiya sadhaka that was hinted at by the blessed author in the previous tripadi are further described in this tripadi. raganugiya gaudiya vaishnava sadhakas establish their abhimana (self esteem) into the own siddha svarupa received from Sri Guru and then proceed in meditating on their devotional services within Sri-Sri Gaura-Govinda’s ashtakala lila. gaudiya vaishnavacarya Srimat Rupa Gosvamipada has briefly described the ashtakalin lila within his own composition ‘Smarana Mangala Stotram’.
On the basis of this, Srila Krishnadas Kaviraja Gosvamipada has very elaborately described Sri-Sri Radha-Krishna’s ashtakalin lila in his scripture Sri-Sri Govinda Lilamrita, and thus blessed the assembled devotees with a celestial Ganges-current of lila rasa.
In later times, Srila Visvanatha Cakravartipada has given more elaborate descriptions of those pastimes that were only briefly described in Govinda Lilamrita in his scripture Sri Krishna Bhavanamrita, and thus increased the storehouse of ashtakala lila rasa in all respects.
Since it is not possible to perceive the pastimes of Sri-Sri Radha-Govinda without meditating on the pastimes of Sri-Sri Gauranga, later the resident of Govardhana, Srila Krishna das Siddha Baba, was visited by Sri Radharani Herself, Who ordered Him to publish something that would suit meditation on Sri-Sri Gaura-Govinda’s ashtakalin lila.   After receiving this order from his worshipable goddess, Srila Siddha Baba compiled the Sri Gaura Govinda Lilamrita Gutika, making the manual completely fit for the practice of lila smarana. To make the assembly of sadhakas relish the ashtakalin lila rasa through the realisations of the mahajanas, Srila Siddha Baba compiled a large anthology of ashtakalin lila called ‘Bhavana Sara Sangraha’. In this way the mahajanas of yore largely increased the jewel-storehouse of Sri-Sri Gaura-Govinda’s ashtakalin lilas, which make up the confidential worship of the raganugiya gaudiya vaishnavas who have taken shelter of Sriman Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet.

While constantly meditating on these ashtakalin lilas, the gaudiya vaishnava sadhakas meditate on their own favorite services within these pastimes.
Hence Sri Thakura Mahasaya is saying: ‘yugala carana sevi, nirantara ei bhavi, anuragi thakibo saday’ — “I will always think of the devotional service of the lotus-feet of the Divine Pair, and I will always remain attached to that.”
While considering the limb of smarana within the framework of the nine kinds of devotional practice in his Bhakti Sandarbha-scripture, Srimat Jiva Gosvamipada has shown the necessity of thinking of Sri Hari, by quoting evidence from Sri Garuda Purana—

ekasminn apy atikrante muhurte dhyana varjite
dasyubhir mushitenaiva yuktam akranditum bhrisam

“One must weep for each moment that was not spent meditating on Sri Hari, just as one cries out after having been robbed of all one’s possessions by a robber.”
Thus the mahajanas have prescribed ashtakala lila smarana, so that the bhakti sadhakas would not lose one moment of the eight time periods of the day and night, and so that they would be blessed with the loving service of the lotus feet of their beloved deities.
Those who do not depend on scriptural injunctions, but are only subdued by devotional greed and eagerness to follow the bhava of the nitya siddha ragatmika vrajavasis (which is not the same as imitating them), and who are eternally engaged in rendering mental service to Sri Sri Radha Madhava, while meditating on Their pastimes, are called raganugiya rasika bhaktas. Hence it is written about the practice of raganuga bhakti¬—

bahya antara ihara dui to sadhana; bahya — sadhaka dehe kore sravana kirtana
mane nija siddha deha koriya bhavana; ratri dine kore vraje krishnera sevana (C.C.)

“There are two kinds of sadhana — external and internal. Externally one practises hearing and chanting with the sadhaka body, and internally one mentally conceives of one’s siddha deha in which one serves Krishna in Vraja day and night.”

Therefore raganugiya gaudiya vaishnava sadhakas are averse to the mundane world and wander around in the kingdom of bhava in svarupavesa. In this way, they always spend their lives passionately doing bhajana. anuragi thakibo saday. While thus doing bhajana in allegiance to the nitya siddha svarupa-saktis, one becomes identified with their feelings. Then, by the grace of sri guru manjari and sri rupa manjari, the sadhaka attains siddhi and he will be blessed with Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s kunja seva in manjari svarupa in Vraja-dhama.

Hence Srila Thakura Mahasaya says: ‘sadhane bhavibo yaha, siddha dehe pabo taho, raga pathera ei se upaya’.
There is a most transcendentally scientific truth hidden in the manual of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas’ meditation on ashtakala lila.
In the Chandogya Upanishad (3.14.1) it is seen — yaya kratur asmilloke purusho bhavati tathetah pretya bhavati sa kratum kurvita, meaning:
“Whatever mentality a jiva maintains in the world, he will be endowed with that mentality also when he goes from this place (meaning: when he leaves his current body). Let therefore the aspirant take shelter of this mentality.”
In the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad (4.4.5) it is seen: sa yathakamo bhavati tat kratur bhavati tat karma kurute yat karma kurute tad abhisampadyate iti.
“The jiva acts according to his desires, completes these actions and consequently reaps their fruits.”

Elsewhere in the Upanishad it is seen: yatha yathopasate tad eva bhavantiti — “As one worships and meditates, so one becomes.”
In the Gita (8.6), the Lord has said: yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajantyante kalevaram. tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad bhava bhavitah –
“Whatever one constantly thinks of during life is what one will remember at the time of leaving the body, and whatever one thinks of while leaving the body will be attained in the next existence.” This is the scientific truth about the power of constant meditation, which is also found in Srimad Bhagavata —

kitah pesaskritam dhyayan kudyam tena pravesitah
yati tat satmatam rajan purva rupam asantyajam

“As a powerful cockroach besieges a worm in his hole, he causes the weak worm to assume the form of a cockroach due to constant meditation on him in sheer terror, without the worm even having to leave his body!” If deep meditation on mundane objects has such power, then there should be no room for doubt about the transcendental devotional power of meditating on the Lord, Who has a transcendental form which is supremely true, by a true devotee. Sri Krishna tells Sri Uddhava (Bhag. 11.15.26) —

yatha sankalpayed buddhya yada va mat parah puman
mayi satye mano yunjams tatha tat samupasnute

“A devoted person who meditates on Me, Who am also called satya sankalpa, He Who keeps His promises, will get any of his thoughts fulfilled exactly according to his wishes.” Such meditation of the sadhaka, which induces the shelter of the Supreme Lord and which is a powerful assistant to bhakti, which is the essence of the Lord’s pleasure potency, can never result into vain imagination. In his sadhana he is meditating on his service to Sri Radha-Madhava throughout the eight times of the day, and he will achieve this in his siddha deha, or his mentally conceived manjari-body which was revealed to him by Sri Guru. This can never be altered or watered down. This is the greatest means of attaining the desired siddhi in raga bhajana. (55)

sadhane ye dhana cai, siddha dehe taha pai,
pakkapakka matra se vicara
apakke sadhana riti, pakile se prema-bhakti,
bhakati lakshana tattva sara (56)

“The treasure I desire as a practitioner I will get when I attain my spiritual body; it’s just a question of being ripe or unripe. The ripe stage is the stage of pure loving devotion and the unripe stage is the stage of practice. That is the essential truth about devotional principles.”

The essence of the truth:

Sudha Kanika vyakhya—
In the previous tripadi, Srila Thakura Mahasaya explained how sadhana and siddhi are qualitatively identical, and in this tripadi he uses an analogy to ascertain this more firmly —‘sadhane ye dhana cai, siddha dehe taha pai, pakkapakka matra se vicara’ –
sadhana bhakti, bhava bhakti and prema bhakti are sequential, qualitatively identical, stages of each other. The treasure of direct loving service that the raganuga sadhaka desires as he performs his sadhana of meditating on Sri Radha-Madhava’s service, he will attain when he achieves prema siddhi in his siddha svarupa. When laulyamayi bhakti (greedy devotion) is not yet fulfilled, but moves towards siddhi, it is called sadhana bhakti.
When this becomes intense it is called prema bhakti. Hence it is said —siddhasya lakshanam yat syat sadhanam sadhakasya tat (Brihad Bhag. tika) “What is the characteristic of siddhi, is the practice of the sadhaka.”

sadhana bhakti always keeps the desire for the attainment of prema bhakti or direct service awake; this is the nature of sadhana bhakti. Hence the blessed author says: sadhane ye dhana cai. Insatiability is the nature of bhakti; the more advanced the sadhaka becomes in his devotional practice, the more eagerness and anxiousness he will feel rising in his heart. This eagerness and anxiousness will help the sadhaka to attain the kingdom of prema siddhi or direct service. There is also a great relish in sadhana bhakti, especially in the lila smarana of the raga sadhakas.
Their meditation is just like rendering direct service, therefore the wonderful relish they savour during their sadhana is incomparible. Then if the sadhaka is satisfied with that and he does not awaken a feeling of lacking of prema or direct devotional service, finally a situation of self-satisfiction may arise in which the sadhaka’s advancement in bhakti sadhana will be blocked. sadhane ye dhana cai — these words explain this fact in a hidden way.
The wealth craved for in the stage of sadhana, meaning the direct loving service of Sri Radha-Madhava in Vraja yearned for by the sadhaka, will be attained within the siddha deha after prema is attained, this is for sure — siddha dehe taha pai.
After giving initiation into kama bija and kama gayatri, Sri Gurudeva bestows siddha pranali, so that the disciple gets knowledge of his distinct relationship with the deity and about the sri yugalopasana, the means to worship the Divine Pair.
In it the disciple will become acquainted with the name, complexion, age, nature and the other of the eleven aspects of his or her siddha svarupa. The learned knowers of the truth call that initiation ceremony through which all sins are destroyed and divine knowledge is bestowed, diksha — divyam jnanam yato dadyat kuryat papasya sankshayam tasmad diksheti sa prokta desikais tattva kovidaih.
In the 283rd paragraph of Sri Bhakti Sandarbha, Srimat Jiva Gosvamipada gives the following explanation of the above mentioned words divyam jnanam –
divyam jnanam hyatra srimati mantre bhagavat svarupa jnanam tena bhagavata sambandha visesha jnanam ca yatha padmottara khandadav ashtaksharadikam adhikritya vivritam asti –meaning:
“Here the word divya jnana refers to knowledge of the empowered mantra being the very form of the Lord, and that through it the aspirant will achieve knowledge of his specific relationship with the Lord, Who is the Presiding Deity over the mantra. In this connection there is an explanation of mantras like the 8-syllable mantra in the Uttara Khanda of Sri Padma Purana, wherein this meaning of the words divya jnana is determined.”

In the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya the knowledge of this specific relationship means the ekadasa-bhava, the eleven-fold relationship of the sadhaka with the mantra devata Sri Gopijana vallabha, or manjari svarupa. In the Patala Khanda of the Padma Purana we find descriptions of how the practitioners who have take shelter of madhura-rasa and who know the principle of Krishna-rasa, meditate on their siddha deha which is suitable for mentally rendered devotional service. ‘nadevo devam arcayet’ ‘devo bhutva devam yajet’. In other words, ‘unless the sadhaka is a god he cannot worship Godhead’, and ‘being himself a god, he can worship Godhead’. These scriptural statements of rule and prohibition firmly establish the need for the bhakta who aspires for the service of the Lord to do bhajana while thinking of himself as a personal associate of the Lord. Such meditation of the parshada rupa (form of an associate of the Lord) by the sadhaka is a meditation on the siddha deha.

Some think: “At first the sadhaka can take shelter of an imagined mental body, and then later, when the Lord is satisfied with his sadhana bhajana, according to the rule of yadrisi bhavana yasya siddhir bhavati tadrisi , He will make the sadhaka’s atma His associate. In this way, although the parshada body of the sadhaka is real, it is an imagination in the stage of meditation.”
This is, however, not the conclusion approved of by the sastras and the mahajanas. In Srimad Bhagavata (3.15.14) it is described:
vasanti yatra purushah sarve vaikuntha murtayah. ye’nimitta-nimittena dharmenaradhayan harim – 
“Those persons who live in Vaikuntha have transcendental bodies just like Vaikuntha (Lord Vishnu) and they worship Lord Sri Hari there constantly through causeless devotional service.”
Commenting on this sloka, Srimat Jiva Gosvamipada has written in the 10th paragraph of his Priti Sandarbha —
vaikunthasya bhagavato jyotir amsa bhuta vaikunthaloka sobha-rupa ya ananta murtayah tatra vartante tasam ekaya saha muktasyaikasya murtih bhagavata kriyata iti vaikunthasya murtir iva murtir yesham ityuktam.
The basic meaning of this saying by Srimat Jiva Gosvamipada is that there are two kinds of associates of the Lord in the Supreme Abode, one that is engaged in the Lord’s direct service, and the other that is eternally present in innumerable transcendental, yet non-functioning forms, that are like sparks from the Lord’s radiant form and are the treasures of Vaikuntha-loka’s beauty. Each of the innumerable jivas is an eternal servant of the Lord, and each of them is staying in the abode of the Lord in a body that is suitable for the Lord’s service. By the grace of bhakti one becomes qualified for the service of the Lord and by the Lord’s grace that body will be attained.
In the siddha pranali that is received from the lotus feet of Sri Guru within the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya, the acquaintance with this body is attained. No one should consider this to be imaginative. This is eternal and real. Of all the innumerable abovementioned forms situated in the abode of the Lord there is one form in which the Lord will accept the sadhaka.
On the strength of his meditation, Sri Gurudeva is aware of this and is conferring the proper siddha deha to the disciple. While the sadhaka performs his sadhana, he establishes his self-esteem into this form, and when he attains prema siddhi he is blessed with direct devotional service within this body.
pakkapakka matra se vicara. pakile se prema bhakti, apakke sadhana gati, bhakati lakshana tattva sara.
Just as a fruit is bitter in the unripe stage and sweet and juicy in the ripe stage, similarly when sadhana bhakti ripens it becomes known as prema.
Although in the stage of sadhana the relish is slightly transient, due to the presence of anarthas and so, in the stage of prema bhakti the relish is very deep. By saying apakke sadhana gati, Srila Thakura Mahasaya is hinting at some of the principles of sadhana bhakti. One of the meanings of the word gati is ‘flow’. Just as the Mandakini constantly flows towards the ocean and will not stop unless and until it reaches the ocean, similarly the Mandakini-flow of sadhana bhakti constantly flows towards the ocean of prema bhakti. Although its fruits are compared with ripe and unripe stages, still the thirst for prema bhakti remains constantly awake within the heart of the sadhaka, thus constantly awakening the tendency towards sadhana bhakti within him that leads him towards the kingdom of prema. That point is consistent in this part of the tripadi. Another meaning of the word gati is that sadhana bhakti is the means to attain prema bhakti, but is also the goal itself. This means that it embodies prema bhakti, which has been indicated in the example of the ripe and unripe fruit. Or it means that sadhana bhakti is both the means and the goal, because the relish of sadhana bhakti is also not less. Even the premika bhaktas covet the relish of sadhana bhakti. Those who relish ripe mangoes also like the taste of unripe mangoes — in the form of mango pickles for instance. Another meaning of the word gati is ‘sort’. Then apakke sadhana gati means the stages of sadhana bhakti from sraddha (faith) up to asakti are the unripe phase, bhava bhakti or rati is the slightly ripe phase, and prema bhakti is the fully ripe stage. In some editions of this book we can find the reading ‘apakke sadhana riti’. Here riti is understood to be indicating the aforementioned sequence.
Srila Thakura Mahasaya says this is bhakati lakshana tattva sara, meaning that whatever is coveted during the stage of sadhana is attained at the time of siddhi.
The only difference is that it is unripe in the phase of sadhana and ripe in the phase of siddhi.
This is the essence of the devotional principle. Another meaning can be, that the secrets of manjari bhava sadhana that have been revealed from tripadi nr.52 ‘sri rupa manjari sara’ up to this current tripadi, are the characteristics of the essence of the principles of bhakti or the carama niryasa (ultimate extract).
The characteristics of the essence of the principles of bhakti are selfless service to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.
There is no comparison to the pure and selfless service of the manjaris to be found anywhere, they embody the summit of selflessness. (56)

– commentary by Radhakund Mahanta Sri Srimat Ananta das Babaji
– translation by Sripad Advaita das