6 Keys to Grow Devotion; 6 Traps That Block It
The Six Foundations That Sustain a Bhakti Practice
Devotion grows like a garden that is watered by our choices and protected from what drains it. Today, we’ll explore six essential ways to nourish your spiritual life and six subtle traps that can quietly pull you off the path. Sixteenth-century Bhakti saint and scholar Rupa Goswami tells us about the inner attitudes and external habits that shape a successful spiritual path.
The six keys to growing in Bhakti are to:
(1) Act with enthusiasm
(2) Endeavor with confidence
(3) Cultivate patience
(4) Act according to the prohibitions and positive practices of Bhakti
(5) Abandon the association of those opposed to Bhakti
(6) Follow in the footsteps of the previous teachers
When we engage with these six principles, we’re assured of complete success. These six are like seasoned travelers on the road of the heart—link arms with them, and you’ll never lose your way. And if we find ourselves stuck along the way, we can review these attributes to identify where we need to make adjustments. We will cultivate these internal attitudes and external behaviors so that our practice remains vibrant and alive. When the roots drink knowledge and awareness, the leaves of practice stay green. These principles sustain Bhakti so it can blossom.
Let’s consider the first three keys together: enthusiasm, confidence, and patience. A Bhakti practice requires these three legs to stabilize it, just as a table or chair cannot have fewer than three legs and remain stable and upright. Without these three, our spiritual furniture wobbles and the offering slides from the table of devotion. We practice Bhakti with enthusiasm, pursue it with confidence in our ultimate success, and persevere with patience, knowing that real progress takes time. Then our progress will be smooth.
The fourth characteristic: To act according to the prohibitions and positive practices of Bhakti includes the dos and don’ts of the path. The positive activities of Bhakti are to hear, chant, and remember the Sweet Absolute, his names, forms, qualities, activities, and associates. These Bhakti practices are free, easy, and joyful, and anyone can engage in them.
And in a serious culture of Bhakti, we’ll avoid behaviors that can check the expansion of consciousness and our growth in Bhakti, which brings us to the fifth key to Bhakti. We’re to avoid intimate dealings with those who are unfavorable toward Bhakti, Krishna, and one’s practice. In like-minded, devotional company, our Bhakti will thrive, but the opposite kind of association can undermine the inner garden we are cultivating. So keep company with those who water your roots, not those who trample your seedlings.
So we are to choose our friends wisely. But it’s not that we don’t have any contact with uninterested people. We engage responsibly with the world and its residents, and we are compassionate and care for others. What is meant here is that we don’t take people who are opposed to Bhakti as intimate friends and share the subtleties of our spiritual life with them, because they’d be uninterested and unable to comprehend them anyway. If the beauty of Bhakti draws us in, we want to share it, but we don’t want to share it with those who would offend or mock it.
And we want to guard our own devotion. We’ll protect a delicate plant while it’s still taking root. Even a soft wind can break a sapling; shelter your Bhakti from those opposed to it. Bhakti is deeply personal and sacred, and it thrives when treated with care and reverence. And it’s spiritually detrimental for a person to decry Bhakti, so to protect them, we often keep our spiritual life private. And to protect the seedlings of love that are sprouting in our hearts, we don’t parade them around for others to trample.
There are four other primary negative prohibitions that aren’t listed here, but we should include them. One will embrace an ahimsa, or a nonviolent lifestyle. Ahimsa, or nonviolence, means not harming any sentient being. We don’t want to harm others subtly by disturbing their minds with our words or behavior. And we don’t want to harm anyone physically. This includes animals. We won’t eat animals or use products made from animals.
Further, one will not take intoxicants or gamble, and we’ll conserve our sexual energy by gradually reducing the sexual urge until one ultimately conquers this bodily demand by experiencing a higher taste. Sex is for a committed partnership.
These are pillars of a spiritual life for any genuine tradition that seeks to calm the material urges, efface the ego, and transform us into compassionate human beings and useful members of society. In Western traditions too—whether contemplative Christianity, ancient Greek virtue ethics, or mindfulness-based paths—self-restraint and care for others are seen as the foundation for personal transformation. Bhakti takes this perspective one step further. When restraint is guided by love, it ceases to be restriction and becomes the refinement of polishing the mirror of the heart.
By rooting ethics in loving service to the Divine, these disciplines become joyful and relational, not just rules or prohibitions, because they form the basis of a healthy, peaceful lifestyle that is thoroughly satisfying. When all our needs are met and we’re content, we lose all desire to disrupt the joy we’ve gained.
And finally, the sixth key to spiritual life is to follow the path of great, broad-minded souls. There have been many who have successfully traveled ahead of us, and they can make our journey smooth and sure. We can learn from them and petition them for assistance in our own progressive march.
The lives of these practitioners, saints, and seers are examples of Bhakti-yoga in action. There are many inspiring stories of great souls in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and many modern-day Bhakti saints whose lives encourage and motivate our own journey. Decorated with humility and fearlessness, these great souls walk a path of absolute trust in the Supreme Person. Their lives are full of engagement in Bhakti, expressed through hearing, chanting, remembering, and surrendering to Krishna; detachment from material entanglement; and complete dependence on our Divine Friend.
The Bhagavatam says, “Association for sense gratification is certainly the path of bondage. But the same type of association, performed with a saintly person, leads to the path of liberation, even if performed without knowledge.”
The lives of these special souls practically demonstrate how we can bring Bhakti into our lives. Therefore, Bhaktas are advised to seek out the company of other practitioners, especially those who are further ahead on the Bhakti path.
The Six Subtle Traps That Undermine Spiritual Growth
And what are the Six Traps to Avoid?
Our Bhakti is spoiled when we become too entangled in:
(1) eating more than necessary or collecting more money than required
(2) overendeavoring for mundane accomplishments, enjoyments, and things
(3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters
(4) practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically
(5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Bhakti or Krishna
(6) being greedy for mundane achievements
These six are weeds that choke the flowering creeper of devotion—recognize them early and pull them out with care. We have limited energy and time, and our future is determined by how we use the assets at our disposal. With awareness, we choose what we see, hear, and speak, which activities we become involved in, how we use our time, and what we endeavor to achieve, all in reference to Bhakti’s spiritual values.
Attention is the soul’s currency; whatever you spend it on, that you become.
Yoga means balance.
(1) We eat to keep fit and healthy. We don’t want to under-eat, which unnecessarily tortures and taxes the body and makes it weak, and we don’t want to overeat, which creates disease and, for many, early death from a multitude of complications. Overeating is a symptom of an uncontrolled tongue.
(2) We require money to live, but we don’t need to work so hard that stress and anxiety become a normal part of life. There’s a saying: “Stress kills.” It can harm the body and mental well-being, and it can kill the spiritual drive. Money and status cannot make us happy, and striving too hard to obtain wealth or notoriety takes time away from spiritual practices.
Also, people who possess wealth or fame often develop pride and other unbecoming qualities that undermine a spiritual life. And, if we live beyond our means and become consumed by anxiety, we can become ill.
If we live simply, our lives won’t be consumed by stress, anxiety, or depression. Simplicity is wealth that cannot be stolen; contentment is the currency that never loses value.
(3) If our days are spent talking about material news and prospects for gratification, then our mind dwells there and circles around and around and around these topics uselessly. The uncontrolled mind saps vital energy and deadens the spirit.
The brain consumes about twenty percent of our energy. We often don’t realize how much energy we lose in unproductive mental activity. We need mental space, peace of mind, and clarity for hearing and chanting. Further, cluttering the mind with TV, social media, computer games, movies, and other forms of media takes up important mental capacity. Not only do they steal time from spiritual practices, but they can also be very addictive. This use of our mind is not conducive to spiritual focus and undermines our efforts to develop spiritual consciousness.
(4) We won’t rigidly or mindlessly follow rules without understanding the principle upon which they are based, and we won’t neglect following rules helpful for advancing on our pilgrimage. In other words, bhaktas will educate themselves by studying sacred texts and be thoughtful about sorting out principles from details. We’re not blind followers but critical, creative thinkers. And bhaktas aren’t weak-willed. Therefore, they don’t ignore positive prescriptions for attitude and conduct.
(5) It’s significant that in both the lists of dos and don’ts we find the same instruction: avoid people who are not interested in a spiritual life or those who are opposed to Bhakti or envious of Krishna. The company we keep influences us, not just a little, but considerably. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had where people tell me they get pulled into old, unhealthy behaviors or ways of being in the world from just infrequent visits with others who don’t share an interest in a practice.
Have you ever heard of a good person’s life going south because their friends were drug addicts or thieves? Bhakti saint Narada says, “Our propensities for poor behaviors and qualities that we acquire through bad company are like ripples on water at first, but eventually acquire the proportions of a sea.” We can truly drown in bad company.
I’d like to point out that offering services to the downtrodden, like addicts or those with mental health issues, is not the same as making them one’s intimate friend. We can help people without coming under the influence of their addiction or bad qualities, though we should remain cautious.
What we really want are friends who have an ardor for spiritual progress. With them, we can exchange noble sentiments and thoughts that infuse us with strength, right thinking, and inspired action.
We emulate the virtues of a good person. “To attain the good,” Aristotle said, “find a good man and follow him.” Those who are serious about their spiritual life should not associate closely with those who hold the ideals and values of a materialistic life in high esteem. All this is to say is that sadhu-sanga, or association with saintly people, is an extremely important aspect of a Bhakti practice.
Sacred Relationships and the Living Practice of Bhakti
Since relationships are central, Rupa Goswami offers us guidance on how to engage in spiritual relationships. First, he underscores how a bhakta navigates relationships with discernment by identifying the different types of relationships.
He explains that we ought to seek out the company of those more advanced than we are and serve them; we should make friends with practitioners who are our peers; we should be kind to the ignorant; and we should reject those who are envious or opposed to devotion. In this way, we will maintain relationships that are favorable to Bhakti.
Then he describes that devotional relationships are centered on the Sweet Absolute and filled with love. Key aspects of loving relationships are that we should offer gifts in charity to our friends and benefactors, and that we should accept the gifts that others want to give us.
We reveal our minds in confidence and inquire confidentially from the other.
We accept prasada—or food sanctified by being offered to Sri Krsna — and offer it to others.
These naturally attractive loving exchanges of giving and receiving gifts, sharing a meal, discussing philosophy, and opening one’s heart and mind are the basis of sanga, or associating with fellow sojourners on the Bhakti path. To give and receive in love is to weave invisible threads of kinship that strengthen the heart’s resolve.
Also, kirtan, or congregational chanting of the holy names, is a spiritually potent and uplifting way to associate with each other. Bhaktas often gather with a collective intention and attention to sacred kirtan.
In addition to inquiring confidentially from our peers, we’re to seek expert advice from someone more experienced than we are. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that we should inquire and bring our doubts to such souls, but we do so with a submissive approach, and as part of a reciprocal exchange of hearts, we are to offer service to such devotees. In simple terms, we respectfully approach those who can teach us.
Let’s consider why relationships are so important in Bhakti: we all share a common reality, we must communicate, and we must interact with each other.
Why is the universe set up in this way? Vedantists say that the most important aspect of the cosmic play is to encourage socialization, cooperation, and relationships.
Why? “Because,” Bhakti Vedanta answers, “we are meant to learn to love.”
Experience has taught me that relationships are the single-most powerful agents of personal development and inner change. And certainly in Bhakti, they represent the best practice and opportunity to draw the heart toward unconditional love. Really, everything remains theory until we’re in real-life, real-relationship situations. In relationships, we practically apply the principles of Bhakti, and theory becomes realized knowledge that melts our hearts and expands our consciousness. Books prepare us for love; people perfect it.
Acquaintance Varshana Swami once said, “Relationships are the place where our understanding becomes realized, tested, and made sacramental.” Spiritual life is not a vague aspiration—it’s a conscious cultivation.
With these six keys, we’re shown how to nourish our Bhakti like a tender plant. And with Rūpa Goswāmī’s wisdom, we’re also warned against the subtle ways we can stunt its growth. When we bring awareness to our habits, our relationships, and our motivations, the inner garden of devotion begins to flourish—and our life becomes a living offering of love.
Thanks for joining me in this episode of Exploring Bhakti. I hope these six supportive attitudes—and the six traps to avoid—give you practical insight for your own journey. Let me know which one resonated most with you, or how you’re applying them in your life.
And don’t miss the next episode, where we’ll look closely at Bhakti’s ethics, or pillars of dharma.
And may your steps fall in rhythm with eternity’s pulse — each day, another verse in love’s unfinished song. Until then, may your heart be inclined to Bhakti.
Sarve janāḥ bhagavataḥ śaraṇaṁ yāntu; tasmin śaraṇe eva maṅgalasya pūrṇatā.
May all beings gently move toward the shelter of Bhagavān; in that shelter alone, auspiciousness finds its fullness.
