Guru Maharaja hadn't had time to prepare for this year's Finnish Summer Retreat because of all the busyness with the mission, so he decided to talk on Rupa Goswami's Upadesamrta (Nectar of Instruction) which he knew well already.
Most of these nine wonderful talks explain the first three verses that are instructions on favorable and unfavorable things for bhakti, an ethical outline for sadacara, or devotee conduct.
While he stressed the point that the do's and don'ts are not pure bhakti in and of themselves, they are needed to position oneself to attract the absolute, and pointed out that the way we act is directly connected to how we feel and think. Guru Maharaja also explained the characteristics of karma and jnana and how suddha bhakti differs from these two, although at the same time including them in herself.
By showing how it's very easy for conditioned sadhakas to have an inordinate emphasis to the side of either over-emphasising or de-emphasising the regulative principles, he brought out the tricky relationship between moral rules in sadhana-bhakti and raganuga-bhakti (which is lawless by its nature). The only way to balance these things out is to keep enlightened association.
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