In plain words
Above all, Bhakti is the principle of Prema that makes one forget the body, opens the mind, delights the heart and makes the divine manifest. Then Rāmānuja held Bhakti to be the chanting of the Name of God in an unbroken stream, regarded that as true Bhakti, and went on preaching and teaching it to the world. In English, the word Rādhā is made of four letters, RADA. Starting from R, it becomes Rādhā. Starting from A, it becomes ādhār. Starting from D, it becomes dhār. Starting again from A, it becomes ārādhana. Rādhā's support is ārādhana. This is Rādhā, they said. Vallabhācārya, in turn, explained it another way. In Vallabhācārya's teaching there is a tap. When you turn it, the water flows in one unbroken stream. When? Only when the pipe is completely full of water does it flow in an unbroken stream. When there is little water, it falls a drop at a time. That is, when the heart is filled with Prema to the full, man chants the Name of God in an unbroken stream. This is what Vallabhācārya called ‘thinking of Hari always, at every time, in every place’. And Madhvācārya: ‘In the world there are many friends. One who is a friend today may be an enemy tomorrow. All friends bound by worldly ties become enemies at one time or another. God alone is the true friend! So, to trust God as one's supreme friend and to pour out one's Prema upon that friend: that is Bhakti’, he said. The Veda has taught a principle beyond this. The Veda has always kept two words before our memory: nitya and svagata. Nitya means the principle that does not change in past, future or present. This is what is called ‘Trikālābādhyaṃ satyam’. The principle that does not change is nitya. What does svagata mean? It is that which, though itself one, has the divine power to spread its light everywhere. Here is a fine example of it. The sun is one; he is eternal. He never changes. Yet he makes the sunlight shine everywhere. The principle called nitya is the sun. The sunlight he spreads everywhere is svagata. For both, svagata and nitya, there is one root cause.