Understanding of Bhagavān means understanding of Brahman and Paramātmā. But understanding of Brahman or Paramātmā is not understanding of Bhagavān. Therefore the Brahmavādīs, the Paramātmavādīs, they are impersonalists. They cannot understand the Supreme Being, Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. They cannot understand. That is the defect. Therefore some yoga system, jñāna-yoga system or dhyāna-yoga system, and there is bhakti-yoga system. That bhakti-yoga system is the perfect. And jñāna-yoga system or dhyāna-yoga system, that is partial understanding, Paramātmā feature. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). In that way you can understand, you can come to the platform of understanding samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. But that is not perfection. Still you have to go. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). After realizing samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, this principle, then you will have to enter into the devotional service, parā-bhakti. Parā-bhakti means transcendental. Bhakti means parā. Bhakti does not mean material. Material . . . it looks like material activities, but it is not material activities. Just like the example can be given just like a man, a boy is flying kite. He is, what is called, the reel? Latai? So sometimes he brings down the kite and sometimes he allows the kite to go. There are two kind of playing. So similarly, the one kind of activities means you are becoming free from the resultant action of activities, and one kind of activity is you are becoming entangled.
So that is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If you work for Yajña, for Kṛṣṇa, then you are becoming relieved from the resultant action of karma. But if you work for your sense gratification, then you are becoming entangled with the resultant action of your karma. Therefore sometimes this bhakti-yoga is misunderstood as karma. Māyāvādīs, they cannot understand. They think that bhakti-yoga is also karma. "These people are less intelligent, so they are in the . . . because jñāna-yoga means vikarma or akarma, akarma. There is no resultant action." That is the view of the jñānīs, Māyāvādī philosophers. But because they see that the bhaktas, they are working also just like ordinary man, therefore it is māyā. That is Māyāvāda. They think bhakti activities as māyā. Therefore we call them Māyāvāda. But actually bhakti-yoga, if you act according to the śāstric principles, if you act according to the order of your spiritual master in bhakti-yoga, that is not karma; that is bhakti-yoga, beyond this karma-yoga. But they cannot understand.