Śrī brahma-saṁhitā 5.32

For want of a taste of things spiritual, a grave doubt arises in the minds of those who are enchained by worldly knowledge. On hearing a narration of the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa they think that the truth (tattva) regarding Kṛṣṇa is the mental concoction of certain learned scholars, created by their imaginative brains out of material drawn from the mundane principles. With the object of removing this harmful doubt, Brahmā in this and the three following ślokas, after distinguishing between the two things, viz., spirit and matter, in a rational manner, has tried to make one understand the pure līlā of Kṛṣṇa, obtained by his unmixed ecstatic trance. Brahmā wants to say that the form of Kṛṣṇa is all “existence, all-knowledge and all-bliss, whereas all mundane experiences are full of palpable ignorance. Although there is specific difference between the two, the fundamental truth is that spiritual affairs constitute the absolute source. Specification and variegatedness are ever present in it. By them are established the transcendental abode, form, name, quality and sports of Kṛṣṇa. It is only by a person, possessed of pure spiritual knowledge and freedom from any relationship with Māyā, that those amorous pastimes of Kṛṣṇa can at all be appreciated. The spiritual abode, the seat of pastimes, emanated from the cit potency and formed of cintāmaṇi (transcendental philosopher’s stone), and the figure of Kṛṣṇa, are all spiritual. Just as Māyā is the perverted reflection of the spiritual potency. the variegatedness created by Māyā (ignorance) is also a perverted reflection of spiritual variegatedness. So a mere semblance of the spiritual variegatedness is only noticed in this mundane world. Notwithstanding such semblance the two are wholly different from one another. The unwholesomeness of matter is its defect; but in the spirit there is variegatedness which is free from any fault or contamination. The soul and the body of Kṛṣṇa are identical, whereas the body and soul of fallen creatures are not so. In the spiritual sphere there is no such difference as that between the body and soul, between the limbs and their proprietor, between the attributes and the object possessing them, of this world. But such difference really exists in the case of conditioned souls. Limbed though Kṛṣṇa is, His every limb is the whole entity. He performs all varieties of divine spiritual functions with every one of His limbs. Hence He is an indivisible whole and a perfect transcendental entity. Both jīva-soul and Kṛṣṇa are transcendental. So they belong to the same category. But they differ in this that the transcendental attributes exist in the jīva-soul in infinitesimally small degrees, whereas in Kṛṣṇa they are found in their fullest perfection. Those attributes manifest themselves in their proper infinitesimality only when the jīva-soul attains his unadulterated spiritual status. The jīva-soul attains the nearest approach to the absolute identity only when the spiritual force of ecstatic energy appears in him by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. Still Kṛṣṇa remains the object of universal homage by reason of His possession of certain unique attributes. These fourfold unrivaled attributes do not manifest themselves in Nārāyaṇa, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha or in primeval puruṣa-avatāras, or in the highest deities such as Śiva, not to speak of jīvas.