Spontaneous Devotional Service 123

though Brahman, Paramadtma and Bhagavan are the same and one
absolute truth, still devotees like Karhsa or Sigup4la could attain only
to the Brahman effulgence. They could not have realization of
Paramatma or Bhagavan. That is the distinction.

An analogy can be given with the sun globe and the sunshine: to
remain in the sunshine does not mean one has gone to the sun globe.
The temperature of the sun globe is different from the temperature
of the sunshine. One who has gone through the sunshine in jet planes
or in space ships has not necessarily gone to the sun globe. Although
the sunshine and the sun globe are actually one and the same, still
there is a distinction, for one is the energy and one is the energetic
source. The absolute truth and His bodily effulgence are in the same
way simultaneously one and different. Kamsa and Sigupala attained
to the absolute truth, but they were not allowed to enter into the
Goloka Vrndavana abode. Impersonalists and the enemies of the
Lord are, because of attraction to God, allowed to enter into His
kingdom, but they are not allowed to enter into the Vaikuntha plan-
ets or the Goloka Vrndavana planet of the Supreme Lord. To enter
the kingdom and to enter the king’s palace are not the same thing.

Srila Ripa Gosvami is trying here to describe the different achieve-
ments of the impersonalists and the personalists. Generally, those
who are impersonalists and inimical to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead get entrance only into the impersonal Brahman, when and
if they reach spiritual perfection. The impersonalist philosophers are
in one sense like the enemies of the Lord because the out-and-out
enemies of the Lord and the impersonalists are both allowed to enter
only into the impersonal effulgence of the brahma-jyoti. So it is to
be understood that they are of similar classification. And actually the
impersonalists are enemies of God because they cannot tolerate the
unparallelled opulence of the Lord. They try always to place them-
selves on the same level with the Lord. That is due to their envious
attitude. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has proclaimed the impersonalists
to be offenders of the Lord. The Lord is so kind, however, that even
though they are His enemies, they are still allowed to enter into the
spiritual kingdom and remain in the impersonal brahma-jyoti, the un-
differentiated light of the absolute.
