However, the rules and practices of the Bhakty philosophy are very peculiar. In order to achieve the desirable Union with the Ocean of Divine Love, or Prem in Sanskrit, a devotee must be absolutely sure that nothing in the world is more important to him or her than the idea of the Union with the Divinity. The devotee should review in his mind all of his friends, relatives, the family and ask himself if God is really more important to him than any of them. If a devotee has to desolate himself from his parents and all friends of both sexes in order to achieve the Union with the Divinity, is he/she really willing to do that? Is God actually more important to the devotee than his profession and all the possible rewards and benefits of it? To cut the long story shorter, can the devotee renounce to each and every love and possession in his/her mundane life in order to achieve Union with the Divinity? At the very beginning of that mental and emotional exercise in Bhakty philosophy the devotee may hesitate or be reluctant to renounce some ideas, objects or people. If the situation is such, then the devotee is not ready yet.

Once the devotee has renounced his/her family and all the objects of the world, even those that were the most desirable previously to him/her, then he/she is prepared to continue the somewhat hard and sacrificing path of Bhakty development.

Let's get this straight and crystal clear in just one point: the renunciation mentioned above doesn't mean abandoning your family, or all of your friends and material objects. That kind of renunciation is deeply spiritual and therefore internal, it exists in your emotions, thoughts, ideas, impressions, and speech only.

You have to imagine that there a condition appears that you have to lose your family, friends and material objects in order to obtain your ideal of Union with the Divine Ocean of Love. If these really existed, would you want to unite yourself with the Divine Love, above every other thing, despite every other thing?

Once the devotee has spiritually renounced everything that he or she used to possess in this material world, he/she should, in meditation or prayers, transmit the existing loves towards his family and friends, towards material things, to the Ocean of Divinity.

From this moment on, he/she must love God alone, with all of his mind, with all of his heart, with all of his energy. The devotee's spiritual exercises then should consist of withdrawal, or amalgamating, or melting, of all his previous mundane loves to the Only Love of his life: the Love to God. He has to practice that Love to God every moment, or as soon as he gets a break from his daily routine activities. The presence of a Bhakty guru is also possible, yet not compulsory, in the spiritual path of a Bhakty philosophy devotee.

Many of the readers might think the mentioned points of the current article and feel that the Bhakty philosophy with its renouncing to give love to one's parents or friends is wrong. Read the First Commandment of Jesus Christ again, and you will find that the Love to the Lord God has to be one absolute love.