Why do we have to have the need to be Krishna conscious when we should not be desiring anything?

We have a need to be conscious of Krishna, because it is the constitutional position of a soul to be conscious of God. The soul is a minute particle of consciousness, ergo, it has to be conscious of something. At the present we have forgotten God, so instead we are conscious of our body and its relations.

To desire Krishna is not a material desire, it’s a spiritual desire. When it is said, we should not desire anything, it means we should not desire anything material, we should not desire bodily and mental gratification.

Spiritual desires, ie. desires to know and love God, are the same as desiring nothing, for it is beyond material desires.

The soul can never be without desires, anyway, what it can do, however, is transform material desires into spiritual desires.

Sri Sukadeva Gosvami says:

A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of all material desire, without any material desire, or desiring liberation, must by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead. —SB 2.3.10

Srila Prabhupada explains:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna is described in the Bhagavad-gita as purusottama, or the Supreme Personality. It is He only who can award liberation to the impersonalists by absorbing such aspirants in the brahma-jyoti, the bodily rays of the Lord.

The brahma-jyoti is not separate from the Lord, as the glowing sunrays are not independent of the sun disc. Therefore one who desires to merge into the supreme impersonal brahma-jyoti must also worship the Lord by bhakti-yoga, as recommended here in the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Bhakti-yoga is especially stressed here as the means of all perfection. In the previous chapters it has been stated that bhakti-yoga is the ultimate goal of both karma-yoga and jnana-yoga, and in the same way in this chapter it is emphatically declared that bhakti-yoga is the ultimate goal of the different varieties of worship of the different demigods.

Bhakti-yoga, thus being the supreme means of self-realization, is recommended here. Everyone must therefore seriously take up the methods of bhakti-yoga, even though one aspires for material enjoyment or liberation from material bondage.

An akama is one who has no material desire. A living being, naturally being the part and parcel of the supreme whole purusam purnam, has as his natural function to serve the Supreme Being, just as the parts and parcels of the body, or the limbs of the body, are naturally meant to serve the complete body.

Desireless means, therefore, not to be inert like the stone, but to be conscious of one's actual position and thus desire satisfaction only from the Supreme Lord. Srila Jiva Gosvami has explained this desirelessness as bhajaniya-parama-purusa-sukha-matra-sva-sukhatvam in his Sandarbha. This means that one should feel happy only by experiencing the happiness of the Supreme Lord.

This intuition of the living being is sometimes manifested even during the conditioned stage of a living being in the material world, and such intuition is expressed in the manner of altruism, philanthropy, socialism, communism, etc., by the undeveloped minds of less intelligent persons.

In the mundane field such an outlook of doing good to others in the form of society, community, family, country or humanity is a partial manifestation of the same original feeling in which a pure living entity feels happiness by the happiness of the Supreme Lord. Such superb feelings were exhibited by the damsels of Vrajabhumi for the happiness of the Lord.

The gopis loved the Lord without any return, and this is the perfect exhibition of the akama spirit. The kama spirit, or the desire for one's own satisfaction, is fully exhibited in the material world, whereas the spirit of akama is fully exhibited in the spiritual world.

Thoughts of becoming one with the Lord or being merged in the brahma-jyoti can also be exhibitions of the kama spirit if they are desires for one's own satisfaction, to be free from the material miseries. A pure devotee does not want liberation so that he may be relieved from the miseries of life.

Even without so-called liberation, a pure devotee aspires for the satisfaction of the Lord. Influenced by the kama spirit, Arjuna declined to fight in the Kuruksetra battlefield because he wanted to save his relatives for his own satisfaction.

But being a pure devotee, he agreed to fight on the instruction of the Lord because he came to his senses and realized that satisfaction of the Lord at the cost of his own satisfaction was his prime duty. Thus he became akama. That is the perfect stage of a perfect living being.

Udara-dhih means one who has a broader outlook. People with desires for material enjoyment worship small demigods, and such intelligence is condemned in the Bhagavad-gita (7.20) as hrta-jnana, the intelligence of one who has lost his senses. One cannot obtain any result from demigods without getting sanction from the Supreme Lord. Therefore a person with a broader outlook can see that the ultimate authority is the Lord, even for material benefits.

Under the circumstances, one with a broader outlook, even with the desire for material enjoyment or for liberation, should take to the worship of the Lord directly. And everyone, whether an akama or sakama or moksa-kama, should worship the Lord with great expedience. This implies that bhakti-yoga may be perfectly administered without any mixture of karma and jnana.

As the unmixed sunrays are very forceful and are therefore called tivra, similarly unmixed bhakti-yoga of hearing, chanting, etc., may be performed by one and all regardless of inner motive.