Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā 5.56

śriyaḥ kāntāḥ kāntaḥ parama-puruṣaḥ kalpa-taravo

drumā bhūmiś cintāmaṇi-gaṇa-mayi toyam amṛtam

kathā gānaḿ nāṭyaḿ gamanam api vaḿśī priya-sakhi

cid-ānandaḿ jyotiḥ param api tad āsvādyam api ca

sa yatra kṣīrābdhiḥ sravati surabhībhyaś ca su-mahān

nimeṣārdhākhyo vā vrajati na hi yatrāpi samayaḥ

bhaje śvetadvīpaḿ tam aham iha golokam iti yaḿ

vidantas te santaḥ kṣiti-virala-cārāḥ katipaye

SYNONYMS

śriyaḥ — Lakṣmīs, goddesses of fortune; kāntāḥ — loving consorts; kāntaḥ — the enjoyer, lover; parama-puruṣaḥ — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; kalpa-taravaḥ — desire trees; drumāḥ — all the trees; bhūmiḥ — the land; cintāmaṇi-gaṇa-mayi — made of the transcendental touchstone jewels; toyam — the water; amṛtam — nectar; kathā — talking; gānam — song; nāṭyam — dancing; gamanam — walking; api — also; vaḿśī — the flute; priya-sakhī — constant companion; cit-ānandam — transcendental bliss; jyotiḥ — effulgence; param — the supreme; api — also; tat — that; āsvādyam — everywhere perceived; api ca — also; saḥ — that; yatra — where; kṣīra-abdhiḥ — ocean of milk; sravati — flows; surabhībhyaḥ — from surabhi cows; ca — and; su-mahān — very great; nimeṣa-ardha — half a moment; ākhyaḥ — called; vā — or; vrajati — passes away; na — not; hi — certainly; yatra — where; api — even; samayaḥ — time; bhaje — I worship; śveta-dvīpam — Śvetadvīpa; tam — that; aham — I; iha — here; golokam — Goloka; iti — thus; yam — which; vidantaḥ — know; te — they; santaḥ — self-realized souls; kṣiti — in this world; virala — seldom; cārāḥ — going; katipaye — few.

TRANSLATION

I worship that transcendental seat, known as Śvetadvīpa where as loving consorts the Lakṣmīs in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the amorous service of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.

PURPORT

That region which jīvas attain by the best performance of their rasa-bhajana, though purely transcendental, is by no means devoid of variegatedness. The nondifferentiated region is attained by indulging in anger, fear and delusion. The devotees attain Goloka, the transcendental region above Vaikuṇṭha, according to the quality of rasa of the respective services. In reality that region is no other than Śvetadvīpa or "the White Island," being exceedingly pure. Those, who attain the highest rasa in the shape of the realization of pure devotion in this world, viewing the reality of Śvetadvīpa in Gokula, Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa within this mundane world, designate the same as "Goloka." In that transcendental region of Goloka there are always visible, in their supreme beauty. all the distinctive entities that are incorporated in the pure cognitive principle, viz., the lover and His beloved ones, trees and creepers, mountains, rivers and forests, water, speech, movement, music of the flute, the sun and the moon, tasted and taste (i.e., the unthinkable wonders of the 64 aesthetic arts), milk cows yielding nectarean flow of milk and transcendental ever-existing time.

Descriptions that supply the clue to Goloka are found in various places in the Vedas and the other śāstras such as the Purāṇas, tantras etc. The Chāndogya says: brūyād yāvan vā ayam ākāśas tāvan eṣa antar hṛda ākāśaḥ ubhe asmin dyāvā-pṛthivī antar eva samāhite. ubhāv agniś ca vāyuś ca sūrya — candramasāv ubhau vidyun nakṣatrāṇi yac cāsyehāsti yac ca nāsti sarvaḿ tad asmin samāhitam iti.

The sum and substance of it is that all the variegatedness of this mundane world and much more variety over and above the mundane, are to be found in Goloka. The variety in the transcendental world is fully centralized whereas in the mundane world it is not so and hence productive of weal and woe. The centralized variety of Goloka is unalloyed and full of transcendental cognitive joy. The Vedas and sādhus practicing devotion revealed by the Vedas, by availing the support of their individual cognitional aptitude actuated by devotion, may have a sight of divine realm and by the power of the grace of Kṛṣṇa their tiny cognitive faculty attaining the quality of infinitude they are enabled to be on the level of the plane of enjoyments of Kṛṣṇa.

There is a hidden meaning of the proposition "even the Supreme that is also nevertheless the object of enjoyment" (param api tad āsvādyam api ca). The word param api indicates that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the only Truth Absolute in all the transcendental blissful principles and tad āsvādyam api means His object of enjoyment. The glory of Rādhā's love for Kṛṣṇa, tasty quality (rasa) of Kṛṣṇa that is realized by Rādhā and the bliss of which Rādhā is conscious in the process of such realization, all these threefold bhāvas (emotional entities) becoming available for enjoyment by Kṛṣṇa He attains His personality of Śrī Gaurasundara. It is also this that constitutes the transcendental bliss of the delicious loving (rasa) service manifested by Śrī Gaurasundara. This also eternally exists only in the selfsame Śvetadvīpa.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness