Pradyumna: "This devotional service is a sort of cultivation. It is not simply inaction for people who like to be inactive or devote their time to silent meditation. There are many different methods for people who want this, but cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is different. The particular word used by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī is this connection is anuśīlana, or cultivation by following the predecessor teachers, or ācāryas. As soon as we say 'cultivation,' we must refer to activity. Without activity, consciousness alone cannot help us."
Prabhupāda: Yes. People say that inactivity, silence, that is perfection. But no. In bhakti cultivation, there is no such thing silence. Always active. The same example can be given that Arjuna... Arjuna became devotee not by silence, but by being active. Activity, spontaneous activity: "I have to do this. My Lord will be pleased. So I have to do this."
Activity. But if I have no idea what is Lord, what does He want, how He's pleased, if we do not know all these things, naturally there will be no activity. But one who knows what is this Lord, what does He want, what is my relationship with Him, then there is activity. So actually, that bhakti, bhakti is not silence. Bhakti is activity.
Just like personally, up to seventy years, I was practically doing nothing. But at the age of seventy years, by the grace of God, Kṛṣṇa, there was inspiration; I went to Western country—not to sit down there silently. So bhakti, the path of bhakti, is not inactivity. Actual activity begins when one is situated on devotional service.
It is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. When one is brahma-bhūtaḥ, self-realized, he's prasannātmā, joyful, ānandamaya. Brahmā-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). He has no desire to fulfill, neither he has lamentation. Here, in the material world, we hanker after things which we do not possess. "I want this. I want that." And we cry when the thing is lost. Na śocati.
But a brahma-bhūtaḥ, when one is self-realized, when one knows that he's not this body, he's spirit soul, he's part and parcel of Brahman, at that time he becomes joyful. Brahmā-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. And he sees everyone on the equal footing, because Brahman-realized.
He knows everyone is not this body; he's spirit soul, part and parcel of Supreme Brahman. This position, when one comes to this platform, brahma-bhūtaḥ stage, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. That is the stage to be promoted to the Brahman activity.
The nirviśeṣa, impersonalists, they want to stop activity. But actually Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, says that real activity begins when one is self-realized, one is situated in Brahman realization. Brahman realization does not mean to stop. Brahman realization means to act for Kṛṣṇa, not for sense gratification. That is Brahman realization. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). And in that bhakti stage, bhaktyā māṁ abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55).
Actually, simply by executing devotional service, being freed from all material contamination, when one is engaged in devotional service, bhakti, that process, bhakti process, can help one to understand what is God. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. It is not said that by karma, "karmaṇā mām abhijānāti." No. "Jñānena mām abhijānāti." Abhijānāti, tattvataḥ, if one wants to know God in truth, then he must take to devotional service. And this devotional service, actual devotional service, begins when one is Brahman realized.