Sadhana Bhakti Steps:
#5 - Do Loving Remembrance

The most important step in sadhana bhakti mediation practice is loving remembrance.

The cause of bondage to or liberation from maya is only the mind. The mind is the performer of action and the mind can't remain inactive even for a single moment.

If your mind is not intentionally and intelligently diverted to the divine side, it will automatically default to the material side. Because of this, it is essential to absorb the mind in the loving remembrance of God.

Can you love God if you have never seen Him?

Because we can conceive what we have seen, it is natural to assume that if we had seen God, even once, if would be easy to form an image of Him and remember Him. Then we might feel excited, "Just show Him to me once! Then I'll meditate all the time!"

But the outcome of bhakti yoga practice is to produce the vision of God; how could it be produced before you put in the effort?

Even if we could see Krishna's divine form right now, and even if that beauty surpassed the beauty of uncountable celestial gods of beauty, because we possess a material mind, we could at best see only a material form.

Thus, our only recourse is to practice sadhana bhakti, which enables us to qualify to see His true divine form and experience the sweetness of His divine love one day.

Can a material mind imagine a divine God?

The Vedas state in hundreds of verses that God is beyond the grasp of the material mind, senses and intellect. Thus, whatever images we would form in our devotional imagination could only be material, not divine. How does material thinking produce divine results?

The secret is that if we imbue the feeling of divinity in a live or lifeless object (including our imagination), the outcome of such faith is divine. God is omnipresent and omniscient. His all-knowing nature recognizes our intention and sincere feelings, and we are graced accordingly to our faith and desire.

God knows all your thoughts and intentions and will grace you with a Divine consequence for your selfless remembrance. To inspire our imagination, we can take the help of a Deity of Radha Krishna...

Or of any picture...

Or use descriptions in the writings of Saints...

Using these images and descriptions only as a base for your imagination, meditate on God's form and maintain this feeling, "My soul beloved God is my everything. He is always with me, everywhere. He is mine and He is my protector."

Even outside of the time spent in meditation, always feel that your Divine beloved God is with you everywhere.