The priest named Balarāma Ācārya chastised Gopāla Cakravartī. "You are a foolish logician," he said. "What do you know about the devotional service of the Lord?"
If one pretends to be a devotee of the Lord but does not understand the difference between dry speculative knowledge and knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth, then such a person's devotion borders on impersonalism and is rank with cheap sentimentalism, which is totally against the spiritual teachings of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. Therefore jñāna-yoga is not speculation or empirical research; nor is it the sudden emotional outbursts of upstarts pretending to be devotees. By practicing genuine jñāna-yoga, even an empirical philosopher will develop a taste for hearing purely spiritual topics from the scriptures. Eventually he will come to understand the Supreme Lord's transcendental position and potency, and ultimately he will relish the Lord's form, which is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss. He will perceive the Lord as the embodiment of all transcendental mellows. And if the pretentious nondevotee sentimentalists, who like to imitate the empiricists, practice genuine jñāna-yoga, then they too will gain an accurate perspective on the Absolute Truth. They will become firmly established in the understanding that the Supreme Lord's form is spiritual and transcendental, and then they will begin to render unflinching devotional service.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 2.117), Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja advises,
- siddhānta baliyā citte nā kara alasa
- ihā ha-ite kṛṣṇe lāge sudṛḍha mānasa
A sincere student should not neglect the discussion of such [scriptural] conclusions, considering them controversial, for such discussions strengthen the mind. Thus one's mind becomes attached to Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
Through such discussion and inquiry, we become aware that we are jīvas, individual souls, upon which our bodies and minds are temporary and illusory impositions. The scriptures refer to the jīva, a product of the Lord's superior, spiritual energy, as the kṣetra-jña, or "knower of the field," while they refer to the temporary, material body and mind as the kṣetra, or "field." Just as the jīva is the kṣetra-jña in relation to his individual body and mind, so the Lord is the kṣetra-jña in relation to His vast universal form. As Lord Kṛṣṇa informs us in the Bhagavad-gītā (13.3), kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata: "O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies."
Therefore the jīva and and the Supreme Lord are nondifferent in the sense that both are kṣetra-jña, "knowers of the field." But when we look at which kṣetra each of them is knowing, the difference between the jīva and the Supreme Lord is seen to be incalculably wide. The Supreme Lord is infinite, while the jīva is infinitesimal. As consciousness, the jīva pervades his body and mind, which he has acquired due to his karma, or fruitive activities. Similarly, the Supreme Lord pervades the entire creation - His universal body - with His consciousness. Though the jīva permeates his body as impersonal consciousness, he is always a person. Similarly, although in His impersonal, all-pervasive feature the Supreme Lord saturates the cosmic manifestation with His consciousness, in His personal feature He remains eternally in Goloka Vṛndāvana performing pastimes. This point is substantiated by the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37): goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto. "Although residing always in His abode called Goloka, the Lord is the all-pervading Brahman and the localized Paramātmā as well." And in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord Himself explains the functions of the field and the knower of the field, and He says that He is present throughout the creation as the knower.