Kṛṣṇa is variety. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante means there are varieties of Kṛṣṇa's manifestation. Kṛṣṇa is there. Kṛṣṇa personally is there. At the same time, Kṛṣṇa, energy, they are varieties. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. Kṛṣṇa is one, but His energies are multi-different energies. So you can take shelter of different energies or Kṛṣṇa directly. The best thing is to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa directly. That is intelligence. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). But we prefer to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's energy. That is also external energy, this material nature. So Kṛṣṇa has given us chance. You can work hard in this material energy, but that will not help you. Therefore those who are devotee, they also take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's energy—that is internal energy, not external energy. Internal. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Daivīṁ prakṛtim means internal energy.
So our business is that we have to take shelter. Instead of taking shelter of the external energy . . . that is also Kṛṣṇa, there is no doubt. Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's energy, nondifferent. But that is not very beneficial to us. We have to take shelter of the internal energy. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Daivīṁ prakṛtim means internal energy. And Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the . . . I mean, the symbol of internal energy. Therefore we take shelter of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in Vṛndāvana, and that is our perfection of life. Then it will be easier to associate with Kṛṣṇa very easily. That should be our motto. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11).
Here it is said: "People who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful." So we have now surrendered to the bodily concept of life. We have to understand, therefore, what is our spiritual life. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches in the beginning that, "You, you have surrendered to the bodily con . . . but it is wrong. You'll never be happy. You try to understand your spiritual identification," and surrender to the spiritual energy. That is required. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Otherwise, you cannot avoid Kṛṣṇa, just like you cannot avoid government control. That is not possible. Either you are in jail life or you are in free life, you are always under government control. Similarly, either we remain in the material world or we remain in the spiritual world, we are controlled by Kṛṣṇa. There is no escape. You cannot do that. But if you remain controlled by the spiritual energy, by directly being controlled by Kṛṣṇa, not by His energy, or by His internal energy, then you will be happy. That is the ambition of persons who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.