Just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is describing about the cowherd boys who were playing with Kṛṣṇa:
- ittham brahma-sukhānubhūtyā
- dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena
- māyāśritānāṁ nāra-dārakeṇa
- sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ
- (SB 10.12.11)
Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. These boys who are playing with Kṛṣṇa as cowherd boys, they are not ordinary boys, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says. They are kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. For many, many life they accumulated their pious activities, and thus now they have got the association of Kṛṣṇa to play with Him. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ.
Similarly, these ajñāta-sukṛti, when they are accumulated . . . just like you deposit in the bank four annas, two annas. In this way, one day it becomes one hundred rupees. Similarly, these ajñāta-sukṛti, when they're accumulated, that makes the fortune of a person to associate with guru and Kṛṣṇa.
- ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
- guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
- (CC Madhya 19.151)
- mālī hañā sei bīja kara āropana
- śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale karaye . . .
- (CC Madhya 19.152)
So bīja means seed. Bhakti-latā seed. Bhakti's compared just like a creeper. The creeper does not stand alone; it embraces another tree, and then it grows. Similarly, bhakti-latā, bhakti always embraces the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and then grows. Therefore it is called bhakti-latā. So bhakti-latā-bīja. If one is fortunate, by accumulating this imperceptible good activities by association with devotees, then he gets this bhakti-latā-bīja, the seed of bhakti-latā.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends, mālī hañā bīja kare āropana. Just like you get some nice seed of rose flower. So if you sow it on the ground, just becoming a nice gardener, and pour water, then it gradually grows. So we have to take the bhakti-latā-bīja from the bona fide spiritual master and sow it within the heart, taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani śraddhā bhaktir anukramiṣyati (SB 3.25.25), and pour water. Just like simply sowing the seed is not your business is finished. You have to sow . . . you have to pour water. So what is that pouring water?
- mālī hañā sei bīja kare āropana
- śravaṇa-kīrtana-jāle karaye secana
- (CC Madhya 19.152)
This is the watering: hearing about Kṛṣṇa, chanting about Kṛṣṇa.
So you take the bhakti-latā-bīja from the spiritual master—that is called initiation—and develop it by pouring water of hearing and chanting. Then it will grow. One day it will grow so big that it will penetrate the walls of this universe. It will go to the spiritual world and gradually go to the Goloka Vṛndāvana, and catch up the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and then produce its fruits, and you will enjoy by eating the fruits.