Śrī brahma-saṁhitā 5.34

The attainment of the lotus feet of Govinda consists in the realization of unalloyed devotion. The kaivalya (realized nonalternative state) which is attained by the aṣṭāṅga-yogis by practicing trance for thousands of millions of years and the state of merging into the nondifferentiated impersonality of Godhead beyond the range of limitation attained by nondualists after a similar period passed in distinguishing between the spiritual and nonspiritual and eliminating things of the limited sphere one after another by the formula “not this, not that,” are simply the outskirts of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and not the lotus feet themselves. The long and short of the matter is this, kaivalya or merging into the Brahman constitutes the line of demarcation between the world of limitation and the transcendental world. For, unless we step beyond them, we can have no taste of the variegatedness of the transcendental sphere. These conditions are the simple absence of misery arising from mundane affinity but are not real happiness or felicity. If the absence of misery be called a bit of pleasure then also that bit is very small and of no consequence. It is not sufficient to destroy the condition of materiality; but the real gain to the jīva is his eternal existence in his self-realized state. This can be attained only by the grace of unalloyed devotion which is essentially cit or transcendental in character. For this end abstract and uninteresting mental speculation is of no avail.