I myself had the same a doubt when I was beginning krishna consciousness. However, the answer is rather simple; the spiritual world is not about our pleasure. In the material conception of life we are concerned whether or not something will be exciting or pleasurable for ourselves, and therefore we judge the value of any given thing based on it’s output of “pleasure.” So in the spiritual world, it may seem that there are not a huge amount of things to do or that it is repetitive or “eternally the same,” but because in the spiritual world everything is for krishna’s pleasure, the devotee feels always satisfied. Krishna is ananda-mayo-’bhyasat; always happy, and he is the purusa, the supreme enjoyer. So when the devotee renders some seva, doesn’t matter what it is, Krishna feels ecstatic from that service, and because we are part and parcel of krishna, we also feel ecstatic. This is the nature of pure love, the lovers can be doing anything together, but they are always enjoying, because they are simply concerned with each others pleasure with no consideration of their own. The devotee can be completely satisfied just by very simple service, because by that service Krishna is happy.
Another thing is that it is difficult for us to conceive of an existence without the influence of the material, distracted mind or the material body; in other words we have no idea what happiness means. A self-realized soul is atmarama, self-satisfied. For him, there is no question of boredom and misery or distraction or feeling a lack of something. These are all products of the material body. In the spiritual world, there is no material body, no anxiety, no conception of time passing, no waiting for the future for something better to happen, or speculating on how good something was in the past, because the ecstatic love and service for Krishna always keeps the devotee in the present moment. In the beginning stage of devotional service we are in the diseased stage and therefore have no taste for chanting or hearing. But it’s not that chanting or hearing on our platform is the same as on the pure devotional platform. Those activities become unlimited sources of pleasure. Otherwise, how would it be possible for great souls like Srila Haridasa Thakura to chant the holy names constantly without even considering eating or sleeping for days on end? (even that they only do so that neophytes don’t become completely bewildered.) So don’t be discouraged, we are curing our disease. A diseased person is sleeping, passing stool, interacting with others, and eating, but in the diseased stage all these activities seem like a source of trouble. If a healthy person comes and says “here is the treatment. Take it,” the diseased man is bewildered to think that “if I become cured, will there still be sleeping, passing stool, interacting with others and eating? Ah, to hell with it! I have experience with those things now, so what is the use of getting cured?” He does not understand that in the healthy state those same activities are a source of pleasure. So let us continue to practice Krishna consciousness and we will realize the actual nature of devotional service. And what else is there anyway? Material pleasure is completely static and repetitive. And eventually you have to become old and entangled in the material world and cannot even enjoy material pleasure. It is simply suffering at every step. That’s why people become Buddhists and Mayavadis; so that they can simply end the constant suffering. But we have something so much greater, unlimited loving relationships with Krishna.
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