The sādhaka does not concoct his own path and he does not want his independent conceptions; he depends on the words of the ācāryas. His prayers will be very pure when he serves the Gosvāmīs’ syllables by hearing and chanting them. Each of these syllables is filled with the flavor of worship and the great eagerness with which their voices were filled when they offered their prayers. There is a merciful blessing for those who serve these syllables:

imaṁ vṛndāvaneśvaryā jano yaḥ paṭhati stavaṁ
cāṭu puṣpāñjaliṁ nāma sa syād asyāḥ kṛpāspadaṁ

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī closed off his beautiful prayer named ‘Cāṭu Puṣpāñjali’ with the following benediction:

“Anyone who recites this Cāṭu Puṣpāñjali-prayer, dedicating it to the Queen of Vṛndāvana, Śrī Rādhikā, will certainly become the object of Her mercy.”

rādhā-dāsya-bhajan cannot be performed in mundane consciousness and it should not depend on any external condition. The words of the Gosvāmīs are very powerful, they will remove material consciousness and cause the heart to be absorbed in Śrī Rādhā’s devotional service.
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The practicing devotee should also have some experience while he meditates on his devotional service. The flavor of Vraja is transcendental and as long as there is even a whiff of material consciousness in the heart these realizations cannot be had. The practicing devotee should nicely follow the process of hearing and chanting with great attachment and without committing offenses, and the more purified he gets, the more his heart will become like a crystal that will reflect (perceive) the rasa of Vraja. Although we may be practising bhajan for a long time feelings of love or rati may not arise due to bad luck, or because we contaminate our hearts by committing sins and offenses. Bhajan is the means and the goal. We do bhajan to attain only more bhajan.

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings:

pākile se prema bhakti, apakke sādhana rīti,
bhakati lakṣaṇa tattva sāra
(Prema Bhakti Candrikā)

“When bhajan is ripe it is called prema bhakti and when it is unripe it is called sādhana. This is the essential definition of devotion.”

How wonderfully Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was fixed in his bhajan! He was always floating in an ocean of uninterrupted meditation on the rasika pastimes of the Yugala Kiśora! raghunāthera niyama yeno pāṣānera rekhā (C.C.) “Raghunātha’s discipline was like the line carved in a stone”.

Srila Ananta das Babaji