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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 16]
under their control because You are causelessly merciful to devotees who desire no material profit from You. Indeed, You give Yourself to them, and because of this You also have full control over Your devotees.
PURPORT
The Lord and the devotees both conquer. The Lord is conquered by the devotees, and the devotees are conquered by the Lord. Because of being conquered by one another, they both derive transcendental bliss from their relationship. The highest perfection of this mutual conquering is exhibited by Kṛṣṇa and the  gopīs . The  gopīs  conquered Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa conquered the  gopīs . Thus whenever Kṛṣṇa played His flute, He conquered the minds of the  gopīs , and without seeing the  gopīs  Kṛṣṇa could not be happy. Other transcendentalists, such as  jñānīs  and  yogīs , cannot conquer the Supreme Personality of Godhead; only pure devotees can conquer Him.
Pure devotees are described as  sama-mati , which means that they never deviate from devotional service under any circumstances. It is not that devotees worship the Supreme Lord only when happy; they worship Him even when in distress. Happiness and distress do not hamper the process of devotional service. Therefore  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  says that devotional service is  ahaituky apratihatā , unmotivated and uninterrupted. When a devotee offers devotional service to the Lord without any motive ( anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam ), his service cannot be hampered by any material condition ( apratihatā ). Thus a devotee who offers service in all conditions of life can conquer the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
A special distinction between devotees and the other transcendentalists, namely the  jñānīs  and  yogīs , is that  jñānīs  and  yogīs  artificially try to become one with the Supreme, whereas devotees never aspire for such an impossible accomplishment. Devotees know that their position is to be eternally servants of the Supreme Lord and never to be one with Him. Therefore they are called  sama-mati  or  jñātmā . They detest oneness with the Supreme. They have no lusty desires for oneness; instead, their desire is to be freed from all material hankering. Therefore they are called  niṣkāma , desireless. A living entity cannot exist without desires, but desires that can never be fulfilled are called  kāma , lusty desires.