In this stage of realization, the eternal truth is no longer covered by the illusory, mundane pall of impersonal omnipresence, and what shines forth is the absolute spiritual personality. The fullest manifestation of that spiritual personality is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the transcendental form of eternity, knowledge, and bliss, who is beyond the manifested and unmanifested material cosmos. As the Brahma-saṁhitā explains:
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body (sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ). He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
The impersonal Brahman is the transcendental bodily effulgence of the Supreme Lord's sac-cid-ānanda form, and the illusory and transitory material nature is a transformation of His separated energy.
Although the sac-cid-ānanda Supreme Personality is a permanent resident of His own eternal abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana, He manifests Himself in His all-pervasive universal form and is present throughout this cosmic creation by means of His partial expansion, the Supersoul. As the Brahma-saṁhitā states,
- ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
- tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
- goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.37)
- goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni tale ca tasya
- devī-maheśa-hari-dhāmasu teṣu teṣu
- te te prabhāva-nicayā vihitāś ca yena
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.43)
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes (sakhīs), embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.
Lowest of all is located Devī-dhāma (mundane world), next above it is Maheśa-dhāma (abode of Maheśa); above Maheśa-dhāma is placed Hari-dhāma (abode of Hari) and above them all is located Kṛṣṇa's own realm named Goloka. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who has allotted their respective authorities to the rulers of those graded realms.
Lord Govinda is the Supreme Personality, unsurpassable, the topmost being, the unlimited Godhead. He is known as Kṛṣṇa because He attracts everyone by His extraordinary transcendental pastimes. It is therefore unanimously accepted that all His other names and expansions are partial. As the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam declares, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam: (SB 1.3.28) "All these incarnations of Godhead are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead."