Difference between a mayawadi and a pure devotee.

There are many so-called devotees who think that in the conditioned state we may worship the Personality of Godhead but that ultimately there is no personality; they say that since the Absolute Truth is impersonal, one can imagine a personal form of the impersonal Absolute Truth for the time being, but as soon as one becomes liberated the worship stops. That is the theory put forward by the Mayavada philosophy. Actually, the impersonalists do not merge into the existence of the Supreme Person but into His personal bodily luster, which is called the brahmajyoti. Although that brahmajyoti is not different from His personal body, that sort of oneness (merging into the bodily luster of the Personality of Godhead) is not accepted by a pure devotee because the devotees engage in greater pleasure than the so-called pleasure of merging into His existence. The greatest pleasure is to serve the Lord. Devotees are always thinking about how to serve Him; they are always designing ways and means to serve the Supreme Lord, even in the midst of the greatest obstacles of material existence.

The Mayavadis accept the description of the pastimes of the Lord as stories, but actually, they are not stories; they are historical facts. Pure devotees accept the narrations of the pastimes of the Lord not as stories but as Absolute Truth. The words mama paurusani are significant. Devotees are very much attached to glorifying the activities of the Lord, whereas the Mayavadis cannot even think of these activities. According to them, the Absolute Truth is impersonal. Without personal existence, how can there be activity? The impersonalists take the activities mentioned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavadgita and other Vedic literatures as fictitious stories, and therefore they interpret them most mischievously. They have no idea of the Personality of Godhead. They unnecessarily poke their noses into the scripture and interpret it in a deceptive way in order to mislead the innocent public. The activities of Mayavada philosophy are very dangerous to the public, and therefore Lord Caitanya warned us never to hear from any Mayavadi about any scripture. They will spoil the entire process, and the person hearing them will never be able to come to the path of devotional service to attain the highest perfection or will be able to do so only after a very long time.

It is clearly stated by Kapila Muni that bhakti activities, or activities in devotional service, are transcendental to mukti. This is called pancama-purusartha. Generally, people engage in the activities of religion, economic development, and sense gratification, and ultimately they work with an idea that they are going to become one with the Supreme Lord (mukti). But bhakti is transcendental to all these activities. The Srimad-Bhagavatam, therefore, begins by stating that all kinds of pretentious religiosity are completely eradicated from the Bhagavatam. Ritualistic activities for economic development and sense gratification and, after frustration in sense gratification, the desire to become one with the Supreme Lord, are all completely rejected in the Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam is especially meant for the pure devotees, who always engage in Krishna consciousness, in the activities of the Lord, and always glorify these transcendental activities. Pure devotees worship the transcendental activities of the Lord in Vrindavana, Dvaraka and Mathura as they are narrated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Puranas. The Mayavadi philosophers completely reject them as stories, but actually, they are great and worshipable subject matters and thus are relishable only for devotees. That is the difference between a Mayavadi and a pure devotee.

Source: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (2014 edition), “Srimad Bhagavatam”, Third Canto, Chapter 25 – Text 34