Self-realized position

Expressions researched:
"self-realized position"

SB Canto 3

SB 3.28.44, Translation: Thus the yogī can be in the self-realized position after conquering the insurmountable spell of māyā, who presents herself as both the cause and effect of this material manifestation and is therefore very difficult to understand.

CC Madhya-lila

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Sanātana Gosvāmī, "Although externally remaining like a neophyte and executing all śāstric injunctions within his mind, the self-realized, advanced devotee in his original, purified, self-realized position, serves Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana in his particular way."

CC Madhya 22.156-157, Translation: "There are two processes by which one may execute this rāgānugā bhakti—external and internal. When self-realized, the advanced devotee externally remains like a neophyte and executes all the śāstric injunctions, especially those concerning hearing and chanting. But within his mind, in his original, purified, self-realized position, he serves Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana in his particular way. He serves Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day, all day and night."

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Sanātana Gosvāmī, "The advanced devotee should execute service externally as a regulative devotee as well as internally from his self-realized position."

CC Madhya 22.158, Translation: "The advanced devotee who is inclined to spontaneous loving service should follow the activities of a particular associate of Kṛṣṇa’s in Vṛndāvana. He should execute service externally as a regulative devotee as well as internally from his self-realized position. Thus he should perform devotional service both externally and internally."

Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)

The perfectional stage begins with activity in the self-realized position, and that activity is based on the understanding that a living entity is eternally the subordinate servitor of the Supreme Lord.

Narada Bhakti Sutra 2: The perfection of devotional service is to attain love of God. Love of God involves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the devotee, and the process of devotional service. Self-realization, the brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20] stage, is the beginning of spiritual life; it is not the perfectional stage. If a person understands that he is not his body and that he has nothing to do with this material world, he becomes free from material entanglement. But that realization is not the perfectional stage. The perfectional stage begins with activity in the self-realized position, and that activity is based on the understanding that a living entity is eternally the subordinate servitor of the Supreme Lord. Otherwise, there is no meaning to self-realization. If one is puffed up with the idea that he is the Supreme Brahman, or that he has become one with Nārāyaṇa, or that he has merged into the brahmajyoti effulgence, then he has not grasped the perfection of life.