Rūpānuga bhajana darpaṇa — A Mirror Held to the Devotional Service of Rūpanugas

Rupanuga-bhajana-darpana, a mirror held to the devotional service of Rupanugas, followers of Rupa Gosvami, is Gita-mala's second-largest section at twenty-nine songs. Where Karpanya-panjika earlier in the book had drawn a single prayer from Rupa Gosvami's Stava-mala, this section takes up his teaching more broadly, describing in sequence the sadhana, practice, by which a devotee following in his line gradually enters madhurya-lila, the intimate, romantic pastimes of Radha and Govinda in Vrindavana. Bhaktivinoda Thakura had already devoted an entire earlier songbook, Kalyana-kalpataru, largely to disciplined instruction and self-examination; this section of Gita-mala picks up past that point, addressing a reader already established in practice and moving them toward the specific, detailed inner cultivation that rupanuga theology holds is necessary before any aspirant can be considered ready for the intimate service described in Gita-mala's final section, Siddhi-lalasa.