It is my understanding that a sadhaka will practice vaidhi sadhana bhakti (or ajata ruci raganuga sadhana) with the goal to progress to practicing raganuga sadhana bhakti. I am wondering if certain practices of vaidhi sadhana bhakti can hold one back from the spiritual progression into raganuga sadhana.
To give an example; deity worship is introduced in the vaidhi stage. In that stage the devotee worships the deity with reverence and rules and ritual. There is offering of water to bathe the feet of the Lord before he eats, so many mantras, we keep our dishes and eating separate from the deity. One naturally thinks of the honor/service that a king of vedic times would receive, and we are appropriately placed as the lord's servant. In this regard it makes sense to me that Srila Prabhupada said that we worship the deities in the mood of Laksmi Narayana. But our end goal is not at all Laksmi Narayan style worship of Radha Krsna... When we develop some attachment to serving Radha-Krsna beyond the state of their godhood, how do we get to the next step? If we start to get a glimpse of some of the mood of Vraja, how do we get over our reverence to the king and feel comfortable enough to slap him on the back and share our food with him?
In the stage of raganuga sadhana the bhakta may still worship the deity, but in a very different way. The lives of many saints come to mind where they would offer food from their hand to the mouth of the deity and demand him to eat! Krsna is sometimes decorated very sparsely, not in fancy regalia, etc. So, in this context (as well as other contexts) I am wondering how one can transition between these two very different stages. In the example of deity worship which is often a very public event, how can one follow one's heart in relation to serving the deity, but still operate in the (I venture to say) spiritually restrictive context of vaidhi sadhana?
p.s. I know that much of this would demand the instruction of a raga-marga guru, and that that stage would be characterized by individuality and a lack of ability to institutionalize or generalize such a process, but I thought to ask for thoughts on this anyway.
It seems to me that the transition is largely internal and its external manifestations would be subtle. To use your example of arcana there may not be much change in how the Deity is worshipped, but the bhakta will of course view the rules and so forth very differently than s/he viewed them prior to the arising of ruci. I think the examples we see of devotees not following the rules are often babaji/avadhuta types who are at a high stage and are not in a position where they need to set an example for the neophytes. Vamsi dasa babaji is a prime example of this type of Deity worship. Those in the position of acaryas will observe the rules much more carefully for the instruction of others, even though their ruci may be quite intense. So to answer your questions,
When we develop some attachment to serving Radha-Krsna beyond the state of their godhood, how do we get to the next step? If we start to get a glimpse of some of the mood of Vraja, how do we get over our reverence to the king and feel comfortable enough to slap him on the back and share our food with him?
I would say that as ruci arises then the sense of aisvarya will fade proportionally. I doubt we need to get over our reverence per se, more likely we just stop seeing the Deity in that way. That aspect will no longer have any appeal to us, and we will focus on serving the Deity in his sweet aspect, naturally.