Unlike prema-bhakti, sādhana-bhakti must be imbibed systematically from scriptural revelation and by aligning the self in full correspondence with realized devotional transcendentalists. Sādhana-bhakti, being the stage in which empirical selfhood is not yet fully transcended, is prompted primarily by the authority of scriptural injunctions.
As the devotee enacts the regulated practice of bhakti, the heart is gradually purified of egoic identification, and as the pure self emerges, it attains fitness to receive the self-revelation of devotion of the nature of love of God.
Only in this sense can it be said that sādhana-bhakti matures into prema-bhakti. But in fact, prema, the inherent potency of Bhagavān, self-manifests in the aspiring devotee’s heart only by the grace of Bhagavān and His pure devotee.
In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī states that devotional service, which is enacted through the senses and which matures into bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti:
"Devotion which is enacted through the senses and which leads to the self-manifestation of bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti. The self-manifestation within the heart [of the practitioner] of the eternally existing transcendental affect of devotion (bhāva) is known as the completion stage of devotion." (BRS 1.2.2)
Unlike prema-bhakti, sādhana-bhakti must be imbibed systematically from scriptural revelation and by aligning the self in full correspondence with realized devotional transcendentalists. Sādhana-bhakti, being the stage in which empirical selfhood is not yet fully transcended, is prompted primarily by the authority of scriptural injunctions.
As the devotee enacts the regulated practice of bhakti, the heart is gradually purified of egoic identification, and as the pure self emerges, it attains fitness to receive the self-revelation of devotion of the nature of love of God.
Only in this sense can it be said that sādhana-bhakti matures into prema-bhakti. But in fact, prema, the inherent potency of Bhagavān, self-manifests in the aspiring devotee’s heart only by the grace of Bhagavān and His pure devotee.
In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī states that devotional service, which is enacted through the senses and which matures into bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti:
"Devotion which is enacted through the senses and which leads to the self-manifestation of bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti. The self-manifestation within the heart [of the practitioner] of the eternally existing transcendental affect of devotion (bhāva) is known as the completion stage of devotion." (BRS 1.2.2)