344
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 9]
there were many sages who tried to invent their own systems of religion without reference to devotional service to the Supreme Lord, but there cannot be any religious principle without devotional service to the Lord. The Supreme Lord is the leader of the entire range of living entities, and no one can be equal to or greater than Him. Even the Lord's impersonal feature and all-pervading localized feature cannot be on an equal level with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, there cannot be any religion or system of genuine philosophy for the advancement of the living entities without the principle of devotional service.
The impersonalists, who take much trouble in penance and austerity for self-liberation, may approach the impersonal  brahmajyoti , but ultimately, because of not being situated in devotional service, they glide down again to the material world to undergo another term of material existence. This is confirmed as follows:
ye 'nye ' ravindākṣa vimuktamāninas 
  tvayy astabhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ 
  āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ 
  patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
“Persons who are falsely under the impression of being liberated, without devotional service to the Lord, may reach the goal of the  brahmajyoti , but because of their impure consciousness and for want of shelter in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, such so-called liberated persons again fall down into material existence.” ( Bhāg.  10.2.32)
Therefore, no one can manufacture any system of religion without the principle of devotional service to the Lord. As we find in the Sixth Canto of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , the initiator of religious principles is the Lord Himself. In  Bhagavad-gītā  also we find that the Lord condemns all forms of religion other than that which entails the process of surrendering unto the Supreme. Any system which leads one to the devotional service of the Lord, and nothing else, is actually religion or philosophy. In the Sixth Canto we find the following statements of Yamarāja, the controller of all unfaithful living entities:
dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇitaṁ 
  na vai vidur ṛṣayo nāpi devāḥ 
  na siddha-mukhyā asurā manuṣyāḥ 
  kutaś ca vidyādhara-cāraṇādayaḥ