The impersonalist rascal, they cannot understand what is the nature of God. In the Bible also it is said: "Man is made after God." You can study God's quality by studying your quality, or anyone's quality. Simply the difference is the quantity's different. I have got some quality, some productive capacity. We also produce, every individual soul is producing something. But his production cannot be compared with the production of God. That is the difference. We are producing one flying machine. We are taking very much pride that, "Now we have discovered the sputnik. It is going to the moon planet." But that is not perfect. It is coming back. But God has produced so many flying planets, millions and trillions of planets, very heavy, heavy planets.
Just like this planet is carrying so many big, big mountains, sea, but still it is flying. It is floating in the air just like a cotton swab. This is God's power. Gām āviśya (BG 15.13). In the Bhagavad-gītā, you'll find: ahaṁ dhārayāmy ojasā. Who is sustaining all these big, big planets? We are explaining "gravity." And in the śāstra we find that it is being carried by Saṅkarṣaṇa.
So the quality is the same, but the quantity is different. So because the quality's same, so we have got all the propensities as God has, as Kṛṣṇa has. Kṛṣṇa has got loving propensities with His pleasure potency, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Similarly, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have also got this loving propensity. So this is svabhava. But when we come in contact with this material nature . . . Kṛṣṇa does not come into the contact of the material nature. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa's name is Acyuta. He never falls down. But we are prone to fall down, to be under the . . . prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. We are now under the influence of prakṛti.
Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). As soon as we fall down under the clutches of this prakṛti, material nature, which means . . . prakṛti's composed of three qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. So we capture one of the quality. That is the cause, kāraṇaṁ, guṇa-sanga (BG 13.22). Guṇa-saṅga means associating with different quality, guna-saṅga, asya jīvasya, of the living entity. That is the cause. One can ask: "If the living entity is as good as God, why one living entity has become dog and one living entity has become god, demigod, Brahmā?" Now, the answer is kāraṇam. The reason is guṇa-saṅga asya. Asya jīvasya guṇa-saṅga: because he's associating with a particular guṇa: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.
So these things are described very vividly in Upaniṣad, how guṇa-sanga acts. Just like a fire; there are sparks. The . . . sometimes the sparks fall down from the fire. Now there are three condition of the fire spark falling down: If the spark falls down on dry grass, then it can immediately ignite the grass, the dry grass. If the spark falls down on ordinary grass, then it burns for some time, then again it becomes extinguished. But if the spark falls down on the water, immediately extinguished, the fiery quality. So those who are captured by the sattva-guṇa, sattva-guṇa, they are intelligent. They have got knowledge. Just like brāhmaṇa. And those who are captured by the rajo-guṇa, they are busy in material activities. And those who have captured tamo-guṇa, they are lazy and sleepy. That's all. These are the symptoms.
Tamo-guṇa means they're very lazy and sleepy. Rajo-guṇa means very active, but active like monkey. Just like monkey's very active, but they're all dangerous. As soon as the monkey . . . you'll never see inactive. Whenever it will sit down, it will make gat-ga-gat-gat. So these are activities, foolish activities. But when one is in goodness, he's sober. He can understand what is the value of life, how one should live, what is the aim of life, what is the goal of life. That goal of life is to understand Brahman. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. Therefore the good quality means the brāhmaṇa. Similarly, kṣatriya.
So they are guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Guṇa. Guṇa has to be taken into account. Śrī Kṛṣṇa therefore said, catur vārṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). We have captured some kind of guṇa. It is very difficult. But we can immediately transcend all guṇas. Immediately. How? By bhakti yoga process. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). If you take the bhakti-yoga process, then you are no longer influenced by either of these three qualities, goodness, passion and ignorance. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: māṁ ca avyabhicāriṇī bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. Anyone who is engaged in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, avyabhicāriṇī, without any deviation—staunch, devout attention—such person, māṁ cāvyabhicāriṇī yogena . . . māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa yogena bhajate māṁ sa guṇān samatītyaitān (BG 14.26), immediately he becomes transcendental to all the qualities.
So devotional service is not within these material qualities. They are transcendental. Bhakti is transcendental. Therefore, you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, or God, without bhakti. Bhaktyā māṁ abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Only bhaktyā māṁ abhijānāti. Otherwise, it is not possible. Bhaktyā māṁ abhijānāti yāvan yas cāsmi tattvataḥ. Reality, in reality, if you want to understand what is God, then you have to adopt this bhakti process, devotional service. Then you transcend. Therefore, in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Nārada says that tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer (SB 1.5.17). If anyone, even by sentiment, gives such . . . gives up his occupational duty according to guṇa . . . that is called svadharma. Svadharma means one's duty according to the quality he has acquired. That is called svadharma. The brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, they are divided, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13), by guṇa and karma.