AJATA-RUCI-RAGANUGA-BHAKTI
Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati were among the first to use the term vaidhi-bhakti in place of the term ajata-ruci-raganuga-bhakti. However, when Bhaktivinoda Thakura used the term vaidhi-bhakti in place of ajata-ruci-raganuga-bhakti, he was speaking of vaidhi in a general sense.
He did not mean to advocate that one should engage in vaidhi-bhakti and thereby attain Vaikuntha, and then from there gain eligibility for the raganuga sadhana that begets Vraja bhakti. He meant that one should engage in the limbs of vaidhi-bhakti such as hearing and chanting to give support to one's immature, budding eagerness for raganuga-bhakti, which in the beginning is often more intellectually based than heartfelt. Mature raganuga-bhakti is an affair of the heart, not the head, whereas vaidhi-bhakti has much to do with one's head and the sense that bhakti to Bhagavan should be done because it is the right thing to do. Its motivation is duty, and its expression of love is appropriately reverential. Raga-bhakti, on the other hand, is motivated by love, and its expression of love is inappropriate in appearance, being comparatively irreverent. The Vraja gopis are, of course, the prime example.
Note that Srila Rupa Goswami has also written that the limbs of vaidhi-bhakti such as hearing and chanting should not be neglected by raganuga sadhakas in Brs. 1.2.296.
He did not mean to advocate that one should engage in vaidhi-bhakti and thereby attain Vaikuntha, and then from there gain eligibility for the raganuga sadhana that begets Vraja bhakti. He meant that one should engage in the limbs of vaidhi-bhakti such as hearing and chanting to give support to one's immature, budding eagerness for raganuga-bhakti, which in the beginning is often more intellectually based than heartfelt. Mature raganuga-bhakti is an affair of the heart, not the head, whereas vaidhi-bhakti has much to do with one's head and the sense that bhakti to Bhagavan should be done because it is the right thing to do. Its motivation is duty, and its expression of love is appropriately reverential. Raga-bhakti, on the other hand, is motivated by love, and its expression of love is inappropriate in appearance, being comparatively irreverent. The Vraja gopis are, of course, the prime example.
Note that Srila Rupa Goswami has also written that the limbs of vaidhi-bhakti such as hearing and chanting should not be neglected by raganuga sadhakas in Brs. 1.2.296.
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