32 The Nectar of Devotion

is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that after Brahman realization,
when one is freed from material anxieties and can see every living
entity on an equal level, he is eligible to enter into devotional service.

As has been stated before, there are three kinds of happiness:
material, spiritual and devotional. Devotional service and the happi-
ness due to its execution are not possible so long as one is materially
affected. If someone has desire for material enjoyment or for be-
coming one with the supreme, these are both considered material con-
cepts. Because the impersonalists cannot appreciate the spiritual hap-
piness of association and the exchange of loving affairs with the Su-
preme Personality of Godhead, their ultimate goal is to become one
with the Lord. This concept is simply an extension of the material
idea. In the material world, everyone is trying to be the topmost head-
man amongst all his fellow men or neighbors. Either communally,
socially or nationally, everyone is competing to be greater than all
others, in the material concept of life. This greatness can be extended
to the unlimited, so that one actually wants to become one with the
greatest of all, the Supreme Lord. This is also a material concept,
although maybe a little more advanced.

However, the perfect spiritual concept of life is complete know-
ledge of one’s constitutional position, and thus one knows enough to
dovetail himself in the transcendental loving service to the Lord. One
must know that he is finite and that the Lord is infinite. Thus it is
not possible to actually become one with the Lord even if one aspires
for this. It is simply not possible. Therefore, anyone who has any
desire or aspiration for satisfying his senses by becoming more and
more important, either in the material sense or in the spiritual sense,
cannot actually relish the really sweet taste of devotional service.
Srila Rupa Gosvami has therefore compared possessing these bhukti
(material) and mukti (liberation) desires with being influenced by the
black art of a witch: in both cases one is in trouble. Bhukti means
material enjoyment, and mukti means to become freed from material
anxiety and to become one with the Lord. These desires are compared
to being haunted by ghosts and witches, because while these aspira-
tions for material enjoyment or spiritual oneness with the supreme
