Bhakti Sadhana

———————————-

Roopdhyan and Prappati

Feel the presence of that Lord who is always with you, and
feel that love which is felt in true surrender. In this
meditation we are remembering God and offering ourselves
to him by giving our consciousness or awareness to his
presence. If the mind wanders off to thoughts about the
world, simply bring it back to the reverence and surrender to
Bhagavan when you notice that the mind has wandered. This
is a powerful sadhana in and of itself, but should also be
done for a before japa to strengthen the mind.

ito’haṁ kṛta-sannyāso’vatariṣyāmi saguṇo nirvedo niṣkāmo bhū-gīrvāṇas tīra-

stho’lakanandāyaḥ kalau catuḥ-sahasrābdopari pañcasahasrābhyantare gaura-varṇo
dīrghāṅgaḥ sarva-lakṣaṇa-yukta īśvaraprārthito nija-rasāsvādo bhakta-rūpo miśrākhyo
vidita-yogaḥ
The Supreme Lord Himself says: When between four thousand and five thousand years of Kali-yuga
have passed, I will descend to the earth in a place by the Ganges’ shore. I will be a tall, saintly
brāhmaṇa Devotee of the Lord, and have a golden complexion. I will be renounced and free from all
desire. I will accept the order of renunciation ( sannyāsa). I will be a Devotee advanced in bhakti-yoga.
I will chant the holy names of the Lord. I will taste the sweet mellows of My own devotional service.
Only the great Devotees will understand Me. [Brahma-vibhāga, in the Tṛtīya-khāṇḍa of the Śrī Atharva
Veda]

Further in the Śrī Garuḍa Purāṇa the following verses appear:

yo reme saha-vallavī rāmayate vṛndāvane’har-niśaṁ yaḥ kaṁsaṁ nijaghāna kaurava-raṇe
yaḥ pāṇḍavānāṁ sakhā so’yaṁ vaiṣṇava-daṇḍa-maṇḍita-bhujaḥ sannyāsa-veṣaḥ svayaṁ
niḥsandeham upāgataḥ kṣiti-tale caitanya-rūpaḥ prabhuḥ
The Supreme Lord who enjoyed pastimes with the gopīs, who day and night filled the people of
Vṛndāvana with happiness, who killed Kaṁsa, and who in the war between the Kauravas made
friendship with the Pāṇḍavas, will come again to the earth. Of this there is no doubt. His arm will be
 decorated with a bamboo danḍa (stick), He will be a sannyāsi and His name will be Caitanya. [ Śrī
Garuḍa Purāṇa]

The fish swimming in the increasingly shallow water did not at all understand that the water was
diminishing, just as foolish family men cannot see how the time they have left to live is diminishing
with every passing day. [SB 10.20.37]

Fulfil

As a theological aside, a typical default response to the notion of a personal Godhead with a
divine abode possessing form and quality is that any such imagining is an anthropomorphic
construction— the projection of qualities known to humans upon a transcendent Godhead
beyond all such qualities and mental constructions. But from a Vaiṣṇava Hindu perspective,
rather than Vaikuṇṭha (Heaven) being an anthropomorphic projection, the reverse holds
true: it is actually this world that is a “theopomorphic” projection. That is the say, there can
be forms and personages in our world only because they are temporary reflections and
imitations of the eternal divine protoforms. This world, as an effect, must owe its dynamic
personalized qualities and characteristics to its cause; so this cause, too, must have
qualities. “Man is made in the image of God” is a coherent inference in personalist theology.