Nine bhakti practices

Practicing Bhakti purifies our consciousness, making us fit to revive our relationship with God. Krishna is all-pure. We are now contaminated by material consciousness and must again become all-pure before we can associate with Him.

The authorized spiritual practices laid out by Krishna are sure to bring success to the sincere practitioner. The Srimad-Bhagavatam lists these nine Bhakti practices:

  1. Hearing about Krishna.
  2. Chanting, or speaking about, Krishna's transcendental name, form, qualities, pastimes, paraphernalia, and so on.
  3. Remembering Krishna.
  4. Serving Krishna.
  5. Offering Krishna respectful worship in His Deity form.
  6. Offering prayers to Krishna.
  7. Becoming Krishna’s direct servant.
  8. Considering Krishna one's best friend.
  9. Surrendering everything to Krishna by serving Him with body, mind, and words.

To bear fruit, these practices must be performed under the guidance of a pure teacher, an advanced devotee of Krishna.