Because we are living entities, we want variety. As I have explained several times, just like if you go in the sky . . . the sky is very brilliant, all shining, but still you'll not like it. You'll come down. You'll want to come down again, because you want variety. So if you go very high in the sky, if you actually enter into some planet where there is varieties of life, then you become satisfied. Otherwise, if you remain only in the sky, nirviśeṣa, nirākāra, then you'll hanker after: "Where is viśeṣa? Where is varieties? Where is variety?" This is natural. Therefore śāstra says, āruhya kṛcchreṇa param . . .
You can go very high with your aero . . . aeroplane, but if you don't get any shelter in the sky, then you'll have to come back. As they are doing. They're trying to go to the moon planet, not in the sky. The sky, you can remain in the sky. Why you are coming back? No, that is not very pleasing. That is not very pleasing.
So bhakti-mārga means that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). You can understand Kṛṣṇa as He is. "As He is" means He's not a human being like you or me. He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sac-cid-ānanda vigraha.
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
That is understanding of Kṛṣṇa. If we understand Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11), then we don't understand Kṛṣṇa. We understand Kṛṣṇa's māyā, not Kṛṣṇa. Nāhaṁ sarvasya prakāṣaḥ yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. Kṛṣṇa cannot be understood, because He's covered by yogamāyā. He can be understood only by the devotees.
- premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
- santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
- yam śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.38)
So the bhakti-mārga means we want real life, eternal life, and varieties also. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Ānanda cannot . . . variety is the mother of enjoyment. Without variety, you cannot feel enjoyment. That is not possible. Suppose if I simply give you a lump of flour. Will you enjoy? But the same flour, you make kachorīs, siṅgāra, lucī, purī and this and . . . oh, you'll enjoy. The ingredient is the same, but when it is variety, it is enjoyable. Similarly, spiritual varieties . . . the impersonalists, they being fed up with this material varieties, they want to make it zero. But that will not help us. In zero we cannot be happy, because we are, by nature, we want to enjoy. Enjoy means there must be varieties. The same flour, but you pick up some different varieties of flour and keep it, oh, you'll enjoy—"Oh, it is very nice." Therefore Kṛṣṇa has given so many varieties.