Only purified devotees can perceive Krishna; liberation comes through dovetailing one's service with the supreme whole.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 7.1 [Staged before Camera] — August 17, 1972, Los Angeles 720817BG-LOS ANGELES [48:09 Minutes] Bg-07.01_720817BG-LOS ANGELES Prabhupāda: I shall go? Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: Yes, you may start.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. So this yoga system, bhakti-yoga, how to increase attachment for Kṛṣṇa, is being taught by our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ [Bg. 7.1] In this connection one has to learn this yogic system from Kṛṣṇa directly or from His representative. That is the meaning of mad-āśrayaḥ. One must take shelter either.
So at the present moment it is not possible to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa directly; therefore one has to take shelter of His bona fide representative, and there are four parties, or sampradāya, who are Vaiṣṇavas: the Brahma-sampradāya, Rudra-sampradāya, Śrī-sampradāya and Kumāra-sampradāya. So one has to take shelter of either of these sampradāya, disciplic succession, and then learn the bhakti-yoga system from him. Then he will understand, or he will see, God. Seeing God is not exactly seeing with the eyes.
God's another name is anubhāva: realization, revelation, realization. So that is wanted. That revelation is made by Kṛṣṇa Himself to the bona fide devotee. sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.136] Kṛṣṇa, God, reveals Himself.
Just like you cannot see the sun in the darkness of night. Sun is there in the sky, but somehow or other, when your planet is on the other side and it is darkness, you cannot see the sun. Not that the sun is not there, but you cannot see. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always present before us, but we cannot see Him.
Just like Kṛṣṇa, when He was personally present, they were..., there were so many hundreds and millions of men on the surface of the globe; only few could see Him, that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So even God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, comes before somebody, it is not possible to see Him. That the seeing process is different. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena [Bs. 5.38]. One can see when the eyes are anointed with the ointment of bhakti.
When the eyes are cleansed to see God, that is revelation. It is said that a pure devotee is seeing Kṛṣṇa every moment. Santaḥ sadaiva. Sadaiva means every moment.