If you want to make advancement, then make friendship with a devotee who is superior to you in bhakti, who has love and affection for you, and who is svajatiya, like-minded. 'Like-minded' refers to one who is like-minded for paramartha (transcendental life) - not for worldly things. He should be an ocean of the type of prema for which you aspire. By hearing from him, you develop increased steadiness in bhakti, and you also develop all the stages beyond that...