Prabhupāda: Yes. We must connect with the current. Just like you have fitted your room with electrical wires, but if you do not touch it with the current going on, then simply electrical fitting with not help you. Similarly, initiation is essential. Ādau gurvāśrayam. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu for executing proper spiritual life, one must take shelter of the bona fide spiritual master. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam (SB 11.3.21). Person who is actually interested in uttamam. Uttamam means transcendental. Udgata-tamam, "after darkness." This material world is darkness. Tamasi mā jyotir gamaḥ. The spiritual world is full of light. Therefore anything spiritual, that is called uttamam.
There . . . Kṛṣṇa's another name is Uttama-śloka. Bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭikī (SB 1.2.18). Kṛṣṇa does not belong to this material world. Only the fools and rascals, they think of Kṛṣṇa having material body. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Kṛṣṇa is always in His spiritual body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Similarly, if we establish our bona fide relationship with the spiritual master, representative of Kṛṣṇa, immediately our connection with Kṛṣṇa becomes established.
Go on.
Pradyumna: "The cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not material. The Lord has generally three energies, namely, the external energy, the internal energy and the marginal energy. The living entities are called marginal energy and the material cosmic manifestation is the action of the external or material energy. Then . . ."
Prabhupāda: So, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8, CC Madhya 13.65, purport). The Supreme Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, has got innumerable, multi-energies. Out of that, learned scholars, devotees, they have divided the whole energy into three: external, internal and marginal. So the living entities, they are production of the marginal energy. The living entity is energy, prakṛti, not the puruṣa. Puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa.
We are all prakṛtis, all living entities. Prakṛti means predominated, and puruṣa means predominator. Just like we see, ordinarily, husband and wife, the husband is predominator and the wife is predominated, although there is no difference between husband and wife; they are one, divided into two. Similarly, prakṛti and puruṣa, they are one. They are not two.
It is explained by Svarūpa Dāmodara: rādhā-kṛṣṇa-prakr . . . praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api purā deha-bhedo gatau tau (CC Adi 1.5). Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, They are one. But although They are one, They bifurcated Themselves as Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So there is no difference between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā is the superior energy, or spiritual energy, and Kṛṣṇa is the energetic. Similarly, this material world is external energy. Similarly, the living entities, they're marginal energy—between the external and internal energy.
The living entities are called marginal energy because the living energy has to act under another energy, that either material energy or spiritual energy. So when the living entity is under spiritual energy, that is his normal condition, and when he's under the material energy, that is his abnormal condition.
We should always remember: material energy means forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. Just like in this material world, everything is there, but it is lacking in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You travel all over the world, you'll see there is profuse arrangement of sense gratification, but there is no arrangement for understanding Kṛṣṇa. This is called material energy. But if you bring in Kṛṣṇa in the so-called material energy, it becomes spiritual energy.
Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is awakening that spiritual energy of the living entity. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). The mahātmā and durātmā, what is the difference? The difference is the durātmā is under the influence of external energy. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31).
When we are too much engrossed with the concept of bodily life—"I am this body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmin," "I am kṣatriya"—when we are influenced by the bodily concept of life, that is called material energy. And when we are influenced by the spiritual energy, we always think that "I am servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa." Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayoḥ dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80).
Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir (Padyāvalī 63): "I am neither brāhmin or kṣatriya or vaiśya and śūdra or sannyāsī or brahmacārī." This, this is a verse given by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He denies any material designation, and He informs us also that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109). When we feel actually that, "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa," that is our liberation. Hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). This is svarūpa. When you are existing as servant of Kṛṣṇa, then you are mukta, liberated. You haven't got to endeavor separately for becoming free or liberated.