After being brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), after understanding clearly ahaṁ brahmāsmi, one can take to transcendental loving service of the Lord. Not that before. Before, if we take bhakti-yoga . . . of course, we shall become gradually brahma-bhūta also . . . Bhakti-yoga is so nice that it does not depend on any condition. Ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means not under any condition.
You can begin . . . in whichever position you are, you can begin immediately. You can begin hearing about Kṛṣṇa from any point. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). It doesn't matter. And if you follow strictly the bhagavad-bhakti-yoga process, then automatically you are situated above goodness. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26).
Anyone who has taken seriously devotional service . . . vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ, janayaty āśu vairāgyam (SB 1.2.7). Liberation means knowledge and detachment. Knowledge, full knowledge, means that, "I am not this body; I am spirit soul, and my bodily activities are not congenial for my ultimate goal of life. I must engage myself in spiritual activity." This is called jñāna and vairāgya. When one knows that he is not body, then why should he work hard day and night for maintaining this body? That is knowledge.
And karmīs, they are trying to maintain this body. Sometimes karmīs also take to bhakti-yoga—not bhakti-yoga; so-called bhakti—but their aim is how to maintain this body nicely. That is also accepted. Akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ (SB 2.3.10). Because if you take to bhakti-yoga even for maintaining this body nicely, that is also very nice, because gradually, due to the influence of bhakti-yoga, you will come to the platform of mukta, mukta-saṅga. Bhakti-yoga is so strong.
Therefore śāstra recommends that either you are karmī, either you are jñānī, either you are yogī, you take to devotional service, your all desires will be fulfilled. That is the injunction.
- akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
- mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
- tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
- yajeta puruṣaṁ param
- (SB 2.3.10)
This is the recommendation. It is all-inclusive. If you have got desire like the karmīs or the jñānīs or the yogīs, you take to bhakti-yoga. Bhagavad-bhakti-yogataḥ. You will become prasanna-manasa. You will be engladdened. You will come to the platform of joyfulness. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12).
Spiritual life means ānandamaya. There is no displeasure. Always ānanda. That is spiritual life. Spiritual life means ānanda, and material life means anxiety. You can distinguish. If you are always put into anxiety, that is material life. And if you are always jolly, that is spiritual life. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt.