3. To love Krishna as a friend

By performing devotional service, one advances step by step, and when one is on the platform of love of Godhead (premä pumartho mahän) he sees the Supreme Lord at every moment.( SB 6.16.51)

Those who are under the spell of external energy, mäyä, take Him only as a beautiful child. Yet He gave full transcendental pleasure to the cowherd boys who played with Him. Only after accumulating heaps of pious activities, those boys were promoted to personally associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Who can estimate the

Tthe Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, He whom many yogés cannot find even after undergoing severe austerities, although He is sitting within the heart. This is also confirmed in the Brahma-saàhitä. One may search for Kåñëa the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the pages of the Vedas and Upaniñads, but if one is fortunate enough to associate with a devotee, he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. After accumulating pious activities in many, many previous lives, the cowherd boys were seeing Kåñëa face to face and playing with Him as friends. They could not understand that Kåñëa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they were playing as intimate friends with intense love for Him. (KB 12)

As stated in the Brahma-saàhitä (5.38), premäïjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena: only those who have smeared their eyes with the ointment of love of Godhead can see everywhere the Supreme Lord face to face; it is not possible by imagination or so-called meditation. (SB 4.12.11)