The six anarthas that cause unsteadiness

The 9 stages of Bhakti in ascending order are :

The nine stages of DEVOTION are:1. sraddha: faith
2. sadhu-sanga: association with devotees
3. bhajana-kriya: performance of devotional service
4. anartha nivrtti: decreasing of unwanted attachments
5. nishtha: steadiness
6. ruchi: taste
7. asakti: attachment
8. bhava: love
9. prema: pure love for Krsna

The six anarthas that cause unsteadiness in the initial stages of Bhakti

Unsteady performance of devotional activities is of six types (in sequential order):

1. false confidence (utsaha-mayi)
2. sporadic endeavour (ghana-tarala)
3. indecision (vyudha-vikalpa)
4. combat with maya (visaya-sagara)
5. inability to uphold vows (niyamaksama)
6. enjoying the waves (taranga-rangini). 

 In this way they characterize unsteady devotional service.
These can be very easily overcome by serving the pure devotees as by serving them we gain affinity  to hear the Lord's messages.

Once we gain that affinity then as SB 1.2.17 states:

śṛṇvatāḿ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām

Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

The six anarthas are described below- excerpt from the second shower of the Madhurya Kadambini.

 1. utsahamayi- false confidence: just as a child, having just begun study of the scriptures, thinks he has immediately become a great scholar worthy of everyones praise, a person just beginning devotional service may develop the audacity to think that he has mastered everything. He is called utsaha-mayi, or filled (puffed-up) with enthusiasm.

2. ghana-tarala sporadic endeavor: a child sometimes is diligently engaged in his studies and yet at other times, because of inability to understand the scriptures and because of lack of real taste, becomes totally negligent. In the same way, a new devotee sometimes practices the different activities of devotional service and sometimes neglects them. Being somtimes assiduous and at other times negligent, his sporadic endeavour is called ghana-tarala (condensed-dilute,thick-thin).

3. vyudha-vikalpa indecision: "Shall I just spend my life happily in family life, making my wife and children Krsna conscious, and worshipping the Lord; or should I give them all up and go and sit in Vrndavana, place of meditation, and become a real success by engaging full time in hearing and chanting with no distractions? Shall I wait until the last stage,after enjoying all sorts of pleasures, when I have understood that the
whole material world is simply a forest fire of affliction, or should I renounce right now? Should I regard this family life as death, a deep well concealed by grass, and give up unreliable family life while young? Or shall I wait until the death of my old parents before renouncing? If I give up family life in an unsurfeited state I will think of family life after renouncing. If I should die in that condition I will go to hell. From that type of renunciation I won't get any strength. Therefore for the time being, I will just work to keep my body alive, and later, after satisfying all my desires, I will enter Vrndavana and engage in worship of the Lord 24 hours a day."

"Renunciation may be condemned as useless, if one depends on it to produce bhakti, but it is acceptable if one realizes it as being generated from bhakti, and dependent on bhakti." Justifying renunciation in this way, and understanding that there will be no worry for food if he should become a renunciate, since it is well known that the asramas are full of food, he sometimes favors a life of renunciation. But at other times, using the dictum that household life is a prison only for those who are attached, he favors household life.

"Shall I engage in chanting or rather in hearing, or shall I engage in service? Let me rather engage in many angas of bhakti like Ambarisa Maharaja."

When one imagines in this way all types of options of devotional service without deciding anything, it is called vyudha-vikalpa, or extensive indecision.

4. visaya-sagara combat with Maya:

            visayavista cittanam visnavesah suduratah
            varuni dig-gatam vastu vrajnanaindrim kim apnuyat

One whose heart is lot in materialism is far from obtaiing devotion to Visnu. Can a man going east catch something which is going in the opposite direction? The devotee, with this understanding - that he cannot attain steadiness in serving Krsna without renunciation or detachment from material enjoyment - esolves to renounce his addictions. But though he attempts to renounce his enjoyment he ends by indulging in it, taking
solace from the example of a devotee given in the Bhagavatam:

            jusamanas ca tan kaman parityago 'py anisvara

The inexperienced devotee, in spite of his attempts to give up his material desires, is unable to do so completely, and is allowed to indulge in satisfying his desires to some degree.This on-going battle with his previously acquired desires for sense pleasure, in which he sometimes meets with victory and sometimes with defeat, is called visaya-sagara or war with sense pleasure.

5. niyama-aksama inability to uphold the vows:

Then the devotee will resolve: "From today I will chant such and such number of rounds of japa and will pay so many obeisances. And I will perform services for the devotees. I will not talk on any subject except the Lord and I will give up all association with people who talk on material matters." Though he makes such resolutions every day, he is always unable to execute them. This is called niyama-aksama or inability to follow rules. Visaya-sagara is the inability to give up material activities whereas niyama-aksama is the inability to improve his devotional activities.

6. taranga-rangini- enjoying the waves:

Finally, it is well-known that the very nature of bhakti is that all people become attracted to the person possessing it. And as the popular saying goes: "By the attraction of the populace one becomes wealthy." Bhakti produces much opportunity for material gain, worship and position. These are weeds around the creeper of bhakti. Performing activities, or seeking ones pleasure (ranga) amidst these weed-like
facilities, which are but small waves (taranga) in the ocean of bhakti, is called taranga-rangini, delighting in material facilities.