Three topics are discussed in the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. In Sanskrit, these are called sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana. Sambandha concerns the nature of ultimate reality: who is God, what is the essential nature of the soul and the world of our experience, and what is their mutual relationship? After obtaining knowledge of relationships, or sambandha, the practice of worship or devotion begins. This is called abhidheya, which is synonymous with sādhanā or spiritual practice. There are different kinds of sādhanā, but sādhanā proper is devotion or bhakti. What, then, is our ultimate goal—the prayojana? Our highest objective is love for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa prema.

In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa states that He is the cause of all causes. In the ultimate sense, Kṛṣṇa is considered to be the Supreme Lord  because we can experience all varieties of relationships with Him.

Once we recognize Kṛṣṇa as the supreme goal, how can we get love for Him, Kṛṣṇa prema? The only way of getting Kṛṣṇa is through bhakti. The sādhanā is bhakti, and the ultimate goal of our life and practices is prema—transcendental, divine love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. None of the four puruṣārthas, or aims of human life mentioned in the Vedas (dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa) can be considered the ultimate goal. Dharma means mundane sacrifices performed for obtaining benefits in the upper worlds of the material universe. If we have a desire for dharma, we cannot attain the highest treasure of prema. Artha means wealth, kāma means fulfillment of lust, and mokṣa means desire for salvation. But none of these things will lead us to the ultimate goal of life, divine love of God. We have to perform bhakti to get Kṛṣṇa prema. Our life is meant for the cultivation of bhakti and thus we should begin the process of devotion without a minute’s delay.