The universe consists of three entities: Brahma, Jīva and Māya, that is, God, the souls and Māya. Shri Krishna represents the highest form of God, also called satchitananda, is eternal and almighty, all-knowing, and an ocean of bliss, Māya is the inert matter incapable of thinking or doing anything by itself, however, powered by God and under His instruction and will it does marvelous deeds. Jīva or the souls are the driving force of all living beings or embodied souls. The souls receive a limited amount of power and knowledge from God which is it is extremely small compared to God, hence the living beings in which it resides are referred to as ignorant. The souls and Māya are powers of the supreme God Shri Krishna and abide in Him.

The universe undergoes continuous regular cycles of evolution and destruction under God’s supervision wherein each living being appears on earth in one living form or the other. There are 8.4 million living forms. Obtaining a human form or birth is an extremely fortunate event for the soul. This happens by a combination of ones good deeds and the grace of God and may occur once in billions of years. A wise soul seeking an understanding of his being surrenders to a Saint who instructs him and guides him to his goal of God-realization. He hears from the Saint, now his spiritual master, what everything is all about, follows his instructions, does devotion to Shri Krishna, gets free from the cycle of birth and death and attains his objective of service and residence in His abode.

Devotion is surrendering our mind at the lotus feet of Shri Radha Krishna. 
​Everybody performs actions with a definite aim in mind and these can be categorized into two groups. One is getting rid of suffering and the other is attaining eternal happiness. No one can remain still. We are compelled to perform actions. Just as being immersed in eternal happiness implies an absence of suffering it can be concluded that the human objective is to attain eternal happiness. The means of attaining this objective with a proper understanding of the entities and the rules is called devotion. The eternal book of laws, the Vedas, have described these topics in unimaginable detail, so much so that one has to spend several lifetimes to understand them. However, saints who are by definition shrotriya, fully knowledgable, and brahmanishtha, with practical experience (have realized God), are there to help us.

Originally, as revealed by Shri Krishna, there was only one kind of devotion but with time unfortunately people have interpreted the term according to their will and others have followed them without verifying them. Practice depends upon understanding and if there is a lack of understanding the practice will be imperfect. With the grace of God if one comes into contact with a Saint he can follow the right path as instructed by the Saint.

It is important because if we fail to do devotion, that is worship God, we will continue to go round and round in an endless cycle of birth and death, and not just as humans but all other forms of life.
Are there different types of devotion? It depends. The mind alone is the performer of actions in the spiritual world. Engaging the mind in thoughts of deep affection for a personal form of God, loving Him above all else, surrendering unto Him, enjoying His pastimes, having a spiritual master and following his advise, serving him selflessly without any material desires and receiving His ultimate grace, we attain our ultimate objective. People are seen to do different activities but if the mind attaches itself to God then the activities are of no importance. There are three main components in devotion: listening, chanting and meditation (shravan, kirtan, smaran). Listening is hearing the pastimes, and understanding the devotional processes and rules from the guru or saints. Chanting is the singing of the divine names, hymns and other chants glorifying Radha and Krishna. Meditation, or roopdhyan, the most important aspect, is thinking with deep love of your ishtadev – Radha and/Krishna – and their grace upon us. It also requires to hold the guru at the same level as your ishtadev, and no less.

The nectar of devotion is the bliss that flows from a devotee’s personal form of God to himself when a relationship is established between the two. 
The most vivid and complete definition of devotion can be found in Narad Bhakti Sutra written by the sage Narada wherein it states that bhakti or devotion has the following qualities.

• It is the ultimate limit of love for God
• It is undying
• After attaining it man becomes fulfilled, eternal and completely satisfied

The word Sadhana means practice. This is the elementary level in which a seeker learns how to focus on the divine form of Shri Krishna and starts practicing it. Focusing on the divine form is called Roopdhyan (or meditating on the divine form of God). By following the instructions of a Rasik Saint, when the seeker sincerely practices roopdhyan, he gradually reaches the higher states where he becomes more sincere and practices regularly. The seeker then starts to experience an ecstasy which increases day by day. With prolonged practice, doing roopdhyan becomes increasingly easier, ultimately it becomes so easy that no ups or downs in life can hamper his sadhana. 

Roop Dhyan or remembrance, is not an act, it is the emotional unity of the mind with the Divine Beloved’s name, form, virtues and pastimes which appear in the consciousness as a humble urge of meeting and which makes the yearn. A whole-hearted remembrance, uninsulated from any form of material attachment, is required to unveil the Divine Beauty of Shri Radha-Krisna.
Ordinary meditation is a concentration on a particular form, but remembrance is a concentration on the feeling of affinity with Krishna. Meditation is done to be absorbed in the ‘form’ of that beauty, but remembrance is done to be absorbed in the ‘love’ of that beauty. Meditation is done for the absorption of the mind, but remembrance is done for the evolution of love. So, whenever the word ‘meditation’ is used in connection with divine-love-devotion, it should be understood that it always stands for emotional-meditation or remembrance.