When the practising devotees greedily hear, chant about and meditate on the expertise in devotional service of the eternally perfect kiṅkarīs they will become qualified to enter into mañjarī bhāva sādhana.

sei gopī bhāvāmṛta yāra lobha hoy; veda-dharma loka tyaji sei kṛṣṇe bhajay (C.C.) – “Anyone who becomes greedy for the nectar of gopī-bhāva will give up social and Vedic rules to worship Kṛṣṇa.”

Devotional practice must be mainly in allegiance to the anugamya (a person who worships in allegiance to the gopīs is called an anugamya gopījana, and the practitioner of mañjarī bhāva is a gopī who follows Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī and Rati Mañjarī) gopījana.

The practising devotees should lay the ground in their hearts for the cultivation of gopī bhāva. A new (rāgānugā-) devotee, who is not blissfully and easily able to get a clear vision of his siddha deha or who has difficulties with the practice of smaraṇa, should first of all hear and chant the glories of gopī-bhāva, anxiously pray for gopī-bhāva, and strengthen the cultivation of gopī-bhāva within his heart by hearing, chanting and remembering the verses of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Utkalikā Vallari’ and ‘Kārpaṇya Pañjikā-stotram’, Śrī Dāsa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vilāpa Kusumāñjali’ and Śrī Ṭhākura Mahāśaya’s ‘Prema Bhakti Candrikā’ and ‘Prārthanā’.

It is certainly very difficult to cultivate gopī-bhāva within the heart if we cannot catch the right mood. Śrī Dāsa Gosvāmī writes that the main means to live in Vraja and to serve the Śrī Yugala there is to remember Śrī Rūpa and Sanātana with love.

yadiccher āvāsaṁ vrajabhuvi sarāgaṁ prati janur
yuva dvandvaṁ taccet paricaritum ārād abhilaṣeḥ
svarūpaṁ śrī rūpaṁ sagaṇam iha tasyāgrajam api
sphutaṁ premnā nityaṁ smara nama tadā tvam śṛṇu manaḥ
(Manaḥ Śikṣā 3)

“O mind, listen! If you want to live in Vraja with great love, birth after birth, and if you want to attain the service of the youthful Couple of Vraja (Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa), then always lovingly remember and honour Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and his devotees as well as his older brother, Sanātana Gosvāmī!”

By always remembering them one’s svarūpāveśa will become strong and swallow one’s external consciousness. Vraja Vihārī Śrī Kṛṣṇa makes even those who do not know how to love love. With the sweetness of His fluteplaying, the sweetness of His form, the sweetness of His pastimes and the sweetness of His love He infuses prema even within the trees, the vines, the animals, the birds, the stones and the water. Indeed, Govinda’s matchless sweetness maddens all the moving and nonmoving living entities!

– From the tika of Srila Ananta das Babaji and Srila Ananda Gopal Goswami to Sri Sri Vilapa Kusumanjali