Since Lord Caitanya is especially merciful to innocent, unsophisticated persons, His name is also Patitapāvana, the deliverer of the most fallen conditioned souls. Although a conditioned soul may be fallen to the lowest position, it is possible for him to advance in spiritual science if he is innocent. Sanātana Gosvāmī was considered to be fallen according to the Hindu social system because he was in the service of the Mohammedan government. Indeed, he had even been excommunicated from brahminical society due to his employment. But because he was a sincere soul, Lord Caitanya showed him special favor by granting him a wealth of spiritual information.
The Lord next explained the situation of different spiritual planets in the spiritual sky. The spiritual planets are also known as Vaikuṇṭha planets. The universes of the material creation have a limited length and breadth, but as far as the Vaikuṇṭha planets are concerned, there is no limitation to their dimensions because they are spiritual. Lord Caitanya informed Sanātana Gosvāmī that the length and breadth of each and every Vaikuṇṭha planet is millions and billions of miles. Each of these planets is unlimitedly expanded, and in each and every one of them there are residents who are full in all six opulences—wealth, strength, knowledge, beauty, fame and renunciation. In each and every one of these Vaikuṇṭha planets an expansion of Kṛṣṇa has His eternal abode, and Kṛṣṇa Himself has His original, eternal abode called Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana.
In this universe even the largest planet lies in one corner of outer space. Although the sun is thousands of times larger than the earth, it still lies in one corner of outer space. Similarly, each of the infinite planets, although unlimited in length and breadth, lies in a corner of the spiritual sky known as the brahmajyoti. In the Brahma-saṁhitā this brahmajyoti is described as niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtam, or undivided and unlimited and without a trace of the material modes of nature. All the Vaikuṇṭha planets are like petals of a lotus flower, and the principal part of that lotus, called Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana, is the center of all the Vaikuṇṭhas. Thus the expansions of Kṛṣṇa in various forms, as described herein, as well as His various abodes on the spiritual planets in the spiritual sky, are unlimited. Even demigods like Brahmā and Śiva cannot see or even estimate the extent of the Vaikuṇṭha planets. This is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.21): "No one can estimate the length and breadth of all the Vaikuṇṭha planets." It is also stated there that not only demigods like Brahmā and Śiva are unable to make such an estimate, but even Ananta, the very incarnation of the Lord's opulence of strength, cannot ascertain any limit to the Lord's potency or to the area of the different Vaikuṇṭha planets.
The prayers of Brahmā, mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.21), are very convincing in this connection, for therein Lord Brahmā says:
- ko vetti bhūman bhagavan parātman
- yogeśvarotīr bhavatas tri-lokyām
- kva vā kathaṁ vā kati vā kadeti
- vistārayan krīḍasi yoga-māyām
"O my dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, O master of all mystic powers, no one can know or explain Your expansions, which You manifest by Your yogamāyā energy. These expansions extend throughout the three worlds." Brahmā also says in his prayers:
- guṇātmanas te 'pi guṇān vimātuṁ
- hitāvatīrṇasya ka īśire 'sya
- kālena yair vā vimitāḥ sukalpair
- bhū-pāṁsavaḥ khe mihikā dyubhāsaḥ
"Scientists and learned men cannot even estimate the atomic constitution of a single planet. Even if they could count the molecules of snow in the sky or the number of stars in space, they cannot estimate how it is You descend on this earth or in this universe with Your innumerable transcendental potencies, energies and qualities." (SB 10.14.7) Lord Brahmā informed Nārada that none of the great sages, including himself, could estimate the potential strength and energy of the Supreme Lord. He admitted that even if Ananta with His thousands of tongues tried to estimate the Lord's energies, He would fail. Therefore the Personified Vedas also prayed:
- dyupataya eva te na yayur antam anantatayā
- tvam api yad antarāṇḍa-nicayā nanu sāvaraṇāḥ
- kha iva rajāṁsi vānti vayasā saha yac chrutayas
- tvayi hi phalanty atannirasanena bhavan-nidhanāḥ
"My Lord, You are unlimited, and no one has estimated the extent of Your potencies. I think that even You do not know the range of Your potential energies. Unlimited planets float in the sky just like atoms, and great Vedāntists, who are engaged in research to find You, discover that everything is different from You. Thus they finally decide that You are everything." (SB 10.87.41)