By Uttamasloka Dasa : I would like to summarize a few points. The first is in relation to raganuga-bhakti, which is one of the confidential reasons Lord Caitanya appeared.
CC Ādi 4.15-16 — The Lord’s desire to appear was born from two reasons: the Lord wanted to taste the sweet essence of the mellows of love of God, and He wanted to propagate devotional service in the world on the platform of spontaneous attraction (raga-marga). Thus He is known as supremely jubilant and as the most merciful of all.
CC Ādi 4.17 — [Lord Kṛṣṇa thought:] “All the universe is filled with the conception of My majesty, but love weakened by that sense of majesty does not satisfy Me.
CC Ādi 4.18 — “If one regards Me as the Supreme Lord and himself as a subordinate, I do not become subservient to his love, nor can it control Me.
CC Ādi 4.19 — “In whatever transcendental mellow My devotee worships Me, I reciprocate with him. That is My natural behavior.
CC Ādi 4.20 — “ ‘In whatever way My devotees surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.’
CC Ādi 4.21-22 — “If one cherishes pure loving devotion to Me, thinking of Me as his son, his friend or his beloved, regarding himself as great and considering Me his equal or inferior, I become subordinate to him.
In Rupa Gosvami's Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, First Wave, there are 3 consecutive chapters, ie: Sadhana-bhakti, Bhava-bhakti and Prema-bhakti. Sadhana-bhakti is of two types, ie: vaidhi-bhakti and raganuga-bhakti. According to BRS, only by engaging in raganuga-bhakti can one attain Vraja prema and enter Vraja lila.
And what is important for all devotees to understand is that these three phases on the progressive path of bhakti must be traversed 'before' one dies. No one dies and 'then' attains prema. That is not the process given by the acaryas as taught by Lord Caitanya.
Unless one attains the prayojana, ie: prema, 'before' one dies, one is not qualified to take birth in Bhauma-lila for the final perfection of their prema and relationship with Krsna. Prema must be attained while we are still in this body or we have not completed the path of bhakti, and thus, we have to take birth again to try again to attain prema.
Now here is the key point to understand. Prema cannot be attained unless one first desires to have a specific personal relationship with Krsna, ie: dasya, sakhya, vatsalya or madhurya. This is because prema is relationship specific. There is no such thing as 'generic' prema. Vraja prema is always in the context of one's 'relationship'.
Therefore, one must 'first' realize or awaken one's desired relationship with Krsna while one is still engaged in sadhana in order to become qualified to practice raganuga-bhakti, which is the only means to attain that type of prema in a relationship with Krsna in Vraja. All of the acaryas concur on these details and there are no exceptions, other than being a krpa-siddha, which is so rare, the acaryas state that it should not be considered as a viable possibility.
This is the highest process given by Lord Caitanya as He taught it to Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami, as we read in CC, and then in their books and subsequently in all of the books of the Gaudiya acaryas.
