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Teachings of Lord Chaitanya
engagement. Without positive engagement the highest perfectional stage cannot be attained. Generally, in the renounced order of life, there are two kinds of philosophers: the goal of one is  Nirvana , and of the other, the impersonal quality of the Brahman effulgence. They cannot conceive that they can reach beyond, or that there is a Spiritual Sky with Vaikuntha Planets. Because such mentalities cannot have any conception of the Spiritual Planets and activities, therefore Lord Chaitanya rejected the proposal of renunciation.
Ramananda Roy then gave evidence from  Bhagavad Gita , Eighteenth Chapter, 54th verse, wherein the Lord says as follows: “When a person realizes himself as not different from the Supreme Absolute Truth by cultivation of knowledge, he becomes joyful and freed from all kinds of lamentation and material desires. At that time he perfects his Brahman realization by looking at everyone on the same spiritual level. This stage of Brahman realization can elevate one to the transcendental stage of devotional service.” The purport is that Ramananda Roy first suggested devotional service with renunciation of fruitive results from one’s work; but better than that stage of life is devotional service with full knowledge and spiritual realization.
Lord Chaitanya again rejected this proposal because in that stage of simply renouncing material results in Brahman realization there is no realization of the Spiritual World and the spiritual activities. Although in the Brahman realization stage there is no material contamination, yet, because there is no positive engagement in spiritual activity, it is not perfectly cleansed. It is still on the mental plane, and therefore external. The pure living entity is not liberated unless he has the complete spiritual idea and is engaged in spiritual activity. When one is absorbed in impersonal thought, or void thought, then his entrance into eternal life, blissful life, and life of knowledge is not complete. When spiritual knowledge is not complete, people will hinder you in your attempt to vacate the mind of all material variegatedness. Impersonalists are hindered in such attempts to make the mind void by artificial meditation. It is very difficult to make the mind void of material conceptions. In the  Bhagavad Gita  it is stated that those who indulge in such voidness or impersonal meditation make very difficult spiritual advancement, and what they attain is not complete liberation. Therefore Lord Chaitanya rejected it.
After rejection of this fifth proposal, Ramananda Roy said that devotional service without any attempt at cultivation of knowledge or mental speculation is the highest stage of perfection. In this connection he gave evidence from  Srimad Bhagwatam , Tenth Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, in which Lord Brahma says to the Supreme Personality of Godhead: “My dear Lord, one