Prabhupāda: If Kṛṣṇa relieves me from all kinds of sinful activities, then where is my miserable condition of life? Miserable condition of life is for them who are enjoying or suffering... There is no question of enjoyment. But it sometimes taken, enjoyment. The fruitive action, the result of fruitive action. So a devotee does not enjoy anything or suffer anything. Because a devotee does everything for Kṛṣṇa. So therefore for his personal self, there is no question of karma-phala. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: yajñārthe karma anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ. If you act for Kṛṣṇa, that is nice. If you act otherwise, then it is karma-bandhana. Yajñārthe karma anytra. Anyatra. Anyatra means except Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities, the activities of the karmīs and the jñānīs and the yogis, they are all karma-bandhana, bound up. Suppose karmīs, they are going to the heavenly planet or higher planetary system for getting higher standard of life, to take birth by pious activities in nice family, to become rich. But that is bandhana. That is bondage.
Similarly, the so-called mukti, jñānīs, they merge into the existence, Brahman existence, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nirbheda-brahmānusandhana. Nirbheda, without any distinction, enter, merge into the Brahman. That is also bandhana, bondage. Why? Because we find in the śāstras: āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam. Paraṁ padam means brahma-pada, to merge into the effulgence, brahma-jyotir. That is called paraṁ pada. According to Vaiṣṇava, paraṁ pada means to go to Vaikuṇṭha or Goloka Vṛndāvana and be engaged as servant, eternal servant of the Lord. But according to the jñānīs, the paraṁ pada means merge into the effulgence of brahma-jyotir. Śāstra says that āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). To go to that paraṁ padam, that is also not very easy. Kṛcchreṇa. Severe austerities and penances, one has to undergo to merge into the Brahman effulgence. Therefore you'll find, the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, their stricture is very rigid. They must take bath thrice in, in a day and lie down underneath a tree and... Their renunciation is very rigid. Of course, those who are strictly following. In our Brahmā, Vaiṣṇava sannyāsa, there is little leniency. Because they live in Kṛṣṇa, so there is no need of very strict, rigid following. Although it is stated that they should live like this. But there is leniency. But Māyāvāda, they are very rigid in their principles of sannyāsa life. That is called āruhya kṛcchreṇa. Kṛcchreṇa, with great difficulty, they merge into the Brahman effulgence. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). They attain in the perfectional stage. Not perfectional. Paraṁ padam. In the spiritual realm. But patanty adhaḥ. Again falls down. Again falls down means because in the effulgence there is no varieties. The example is just like you have got a nice sputnik or, what is called...?
Indian man: Apollo. Apollo.
Prabhupāda: No, no. By which they go?
Indians and Devotees: Rocket.
Prabhupāda: Rocket, rocket. You have not very nice rocket running at the speed of eighteen thousand miles or twenty-five thousand miles per hour. But you may go. If you don't take, if you don't get shelter in some planet... Just as they're going in the moon planet, but do not get shelter and come back, similarly, supposing they are getting shelter, but that shelter is not very secure. They again come back. So without shelter, how long you can fly in the sky? The sky is unlimited. You can fly on your sputnik or capsules, but if you don't get the shelter in some planet, then again you come back to your place. So this is... The same example is given in the Bhāgavata: āruhya kṛcchreṇa, with great scientific method you can go up. But if you don't get a shelter, then you come back again on this planet. Similarly, the nondevotees, the impersonalists, they undergo severe penances and austerities undoubtedly, and they rise up to the brahma-jyotir... Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). From there, he again falls down. Same example. Why? Anādhṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Because they did not care for the shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, therefore they have to come back again to this material world.