In the Vedic literature it is said that dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). "Yogīs, mystics, they are meditating and trying to find out the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Supersoul, Paramātmā, within the heart." And the bhaktas, or the devotees, they are directly contacting the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. Just like Kṛṣṇa appeared, and the bhaktas met Him face to face. Not everyone could understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but bhaktas could understand. That is vṛndāvana-līlā, pastimes. Vṛndāvana-līlā, Kṛṣṇa manifests just to attract us that how you can meet the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. Just like we are meeting in this meeting face to face, similarly, you can also meet the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. But you have to be qualified for that purpose.
If you want to understand Kṛṣṇa in His impersonal Brahman feature, there is risk also. I will explain that. The Brahman feature is impersonal. Just like . . . try to understand that there is sun, the sun globe, and within the sun globe there is the sun deity, and outside the sun globe there is sunshine. All of them are light. The . . . within the sun globe, there is light, and in the . . . outside the sun globe, there is light, and the sunshine is also light, but still, there are differences. Another example is: just like if you try to observe a mountain from distant place, it will appear as hazy cloud. And if you go still nearer, you will find something, greenish rock. The subject of observation is the same thing, but you are looking in different way on account of your different angle of vision. Similarly, if you actually enter the mountain, you will find there are many trees, many houses, many animals, many men. It is full of varieties. Similarly, the Absolute Truth, object of vision, is one, but according to our angle of vision, sometimes we are seeing it is hazy cloud, sometimes as greenish mountain, and when you actually in that place, you see varieties of living entities, trees and houses, everything there.
Similarly, those who are trying to understand the Absolute Truth by dint of his limited knowledge, they realize impersonal Brahman. Here Kṛṣṇa says, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ (BG 4.11): everyone. "Everyone" means those who are actually seeking after God realization, they are following the same path, but on account of their distance of vision, they are realizing the Absolute Truth in different way. But all of them are beyond this material world. That I have already explained yesterday. Tapasā pūtā bahavaḥ. Tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ (BG 4.10). The process of going to the spiritual world is knowledge and austerities. That is for everyone, either he is jñānī, yogī or bhakta. But even going to the spiritual platform, there are differences according to the angle of vision.
So risk of impersonal realization is that because in the impersonal feature you cannot enjoy that blissfulness eternally, therefore sometimes—not sometimes; mostly—they come back again into the material world. Because by nature we are jubilant, in the impersonal feature of brahma-jyotir, we cannot enjoy life. Therefore again we come back to this material enjoyment. Just like by an aeroplane, you want to go higher and higher, but if you don't get the shelter, a shelter in another planet, you will have to come back again to this planet. It is stated in the Vedic literature . . . (baby crying) (pause) Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32): "Unless you become elevated to the position of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, simply by impersonal Brahman realization you cannot become happy. Therefore for enjoyment . . ." enjoyment means varieties, the varieties of enjoyment, "you come down again to the material world."
We have seen it practically. Many big, big sannyāsīs and transcendentalists, they give up this world as mithyā, or false, and take to sannyāsa, but after some time, again they come back to this material world for executing philanthropic activities like opening hospitals or opening schools and other philanthropic activities. It so happens because they cannot fully realize the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Person, they again come to these material persons. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find, Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19), which means, "After many, many births, the jñānīs after speculative knowledge, when actually they come to the platform of knowledge, they surrender unto Me or they understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
The next line is, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). One who can understand Kṛṣṇa, whose another name is Vāsudeva—so He is everything, He is the origin of everything—one who can understand, he is supposed to be mahātmā, the liberated soul, or the great soul, mahātmā. Mahā means great; atmā means soul. But sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ: it is very difficult to find out such mahātmā. So the Kṛṣṇa devotees who are engaged in these missionary activities, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are not ordinary persons. They are mahātmā, but very rarely to be found. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. So although everyone is searching after Kṛṣṇa, either in impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā, the person who has understood Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, he is the greatest, I mean to say, successful man within this world.