Text 19]                      Lord Rāmacandra Rules the World
119
of Daṇḍakāraṇya, thorns pricked His lotus feet. The devotees, upon thinking of this, would faint. The Lord does not feel pain or pleasure from any action or reaction of this material world, but the devotees cannot tolerate even the pricking of the Lord's lotus feet by a thorn. This was the attitude of the  gopīs  when they thought of Kṛṣṇa wandering in the forest, with pebbles and grains of sand pricking His lotus feet. This tribulation in the heart of a devotee cannot be understood by  karmīs ,  jñānīs  or  yogīs . The devotees, who could not tolerate even thinking of the Lord's lotus feet being pricked by a thorn, were again put into tribulation by thinking of the Lord's disappearance, for the Lord had to return to His abode after finishing His pastimes in this material world.
The word  ātma-jyotiḥ  is significant. The  brahmajyoti , which is greatly appreciated by  jñānīs , or monistic philosophers who desire to enter it for liberation, is nothing but the rays of the Lord's body.
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi- koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtam govindam ādi-puruṣam tam aham bhajāmi
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes." ( Brahma-saṁhitā  5.40) The  brahmajyoti  is the beginning of the spiritual world, and beyond the  brahmajyoti  are the Vaikuṇṭha planets. In other words, the  brahmajyoti  stays outside the Vaikuṇṭha planets, just as the sunshine stays outside the sun. To enter the sun planet, one must go through the sunshine. Similarly, when the Lord or His devotees enter the Vaikuṇṭha planets, they go through the  brahmajyoti . The  jñānīs , or monistic philosophers, because of their impersonal conception of the Lord, cannot enter the Vaikuṇṭha planets, but they also cannot stay eternally in the  brahmajyoti . Thus after some time they fall again to this material world.  Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ  ( Bhāg.  10.2.32). The Vaikuṇṭha planets are covered by the