There are two kinds of devotees engaged in devotional service with awe and veneration—the Lord's subordinates and His sons. The servitors in the abode of Dvārakā always worship Kṛṣṇa as the most respectable and revered Personality of Godhead. They are captivated by Kṛṣṇa because of His superexcellent opulences. The members who always thought themselves protected by Kṛṣṇa could readily convert their conviction into practical demonstration, because it was sometimes found that the sons of Kṛṣṇa acted very unlawfully in various places but were nonetheless given full protection by Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.
Even Balarāma, the elder brother of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes unknowingly offered respect to Him. Once when Kṛṣṇa came before Lord Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa was anxious to offer His respects to His elder brother, but at that time Balarāma's club was lowered down upon Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. In other words, the club in Balarāma's hand offered its own respects to Kṛṣṇa. These feelings of subordination, as explained above, are sometimes manifested as anubhāva.
When demigods from the heavenly planets came to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, all of Kṛṣṇa's sons followed them, and Lord Brahmā sprinkled water from his kamaṇḍalu upon them. When the demigods came before Kṛṣṇa, the sons, instead of sitting on golden chairs, sat down on the floor, which was covered with deerskin.
Sometimes the behavior of Kṛṣṇa's sons appears similar to the behavior of His personal servants. For example, the sons used to offer their obeisances, they were silent, submissive and gentle, and they were always ready to carry out Kṛṣṇa's orders, even at the risk of life. When present before Kṛṣṇa, they bowed down on the ground. They were very silent and steady, and they used to restrain coughing and laughing before the Lord. Also, they never discussed Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in conjugal love. In other words, devotees who are engaged in reverential devotional service should not discuss the conjugal love affairs of Kṛṣṇa. No one should claim his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa unless he is liberated. In the conditioned state of life, the devotees have to execute the prescribed duties as recommended in the codes of devotional service. When one is mature in devotional service and is a realized soul, he can know his own eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. One should not artificially try to establish some relationship. In the premature stage it is sometimes found that a lusty, conditioned person will artificially try to establish some relationship with Kṛṣṇa in conjugal love. The result of this is that one becomes prākṛta-sahajiyā, or one who takes everything very cheaply. Although such persons may be very anxious to establish a relationship with Kṛṣṇa in conjugal love, their conditioned life in the material world is still most abominable. A person who has actually established his relationship with Kṛṣṇa can no longer act on the material plane, and his personal character cannot be criticized.