Devotional Service Surpasses All Liberation
43
devotees of the Lord. It is understood that such persons are very rare and almost never to be seen, so I am astonished that Vṛtrāsura has become such a devotee!”
In the above verse, the most important thing to be noted is that there may be many liberated persons who might have merged into the existence of the impersonal  Brahman , but a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, is very, very rare. Even out of millions of liberated persons, only one is fortunate enough to become a devotee.
In the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , First Canto, 7th Chapter, Queen Kuntī is praying to Lord Kṛṣṇa at the time of His departure: “My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are so great that You are inconceivable even to great stalwart scholars and  paramahaṁsas  [fully liberated souls]. So if such great sages, who are transcendental to all the reactions of material existence, are unable to know You, then as far as we are concerned, belonging to the less intelligent woman class, how is it possible for us to know Your glories? How can we understand You?” In this verse, the particular thing to be noted is that the Personality of Godhead is not understood by great liberated persons, but only by devotees such as Queen Kuntī in her humbleness. Although she was a woman and considered less intelligent than a man, still she realized the glories of Kṛṣṇa. That is the purport of this verse.
Another passage which is very important is in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , First Canto, 6th Chapter, 10th verse, and is called the “ ātmārāma  verse.” In this  ātmārāma  verse it is stated that even those who are completely liberated from material contamination are attracted by the transcendental qualities of Lord Kṛṣṇa.* The purport of this verse is that a liberated soul has absolutely no desire at all for material enjoyment; he is wholly freed from all kinds of material desires, yet still he is irresistibly attracted by the desire to hear and understand the pastimes of the Lord. We can therefore conclude that the glories and pastimes of the Lord are not material. Otherwise, how
*This  ātmārāma  verse was once nicely explained by Lord Caitanya to Sanātana Gosvāmī. There is a detailed explanation of this verse in the author's  Teachings of Lord Caitanya .