To taste the fruit of devotional service in Goloka Vrndavana is the highest perfection of life, and in the presence of such perfection - religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation - are very insignificant achievements

Expressions researched:
"To taste the fruit of devotional service in Goloka Vṛndāvana is the highest perfection of life, and in the presence of such perfection, the four material perfections—religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation—are very insignificant achievements"

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Madhya-lila

"To taste the fruit of devotional service in Goloka Vṛndāvana is the highest perfection of life, and in the presence of such perfection, the four material perfections—religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation—are very insignificant achievements."

CC Madhya 19.164, Translation and Purport

"To taste the fruit of devotional service in Goloka Vṛndāvana is the highest perfection of life, and in the presence of such perfection, the four material perfections—religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation—are very insignificant achievements."

The highest achievement attained by the jñānīs, or impersonalists, is becoming one with the Supreme, generally known as mokṣa, liberation. The highest achievements of the yogīs are the eight material perfections, such as aṇimā, laghimā and prāpti. Yet these are nothing compared to the eternal bliss of the devotee who returns back to Godhead and tastes the fruit of devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord. The material perfections, even up to the point of liberation, are very insignificant in comparison; therefore the pure devotee is never interested in such things. His only interest is in perfecting his devotional service to the Lord. The pleasure of the impersonalist, monist philosophers is condemned in the following verse, which is also found in Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Lalita-mādhava.