Texts 47-48
tad-dhyānodriktayā bhaktyā
viśuddha-dhiṣaṇāḥ pare
tasmin nārāyaṇa-pade
ekānta-matayo gatim
avāpur duravāpāṁ te
asadbhir viṣayātmabhiḥ
vidhūta-kalmaṣā sthānaṁ
virajenātmanaiva hi
tat — that; dhyāna — positive meditation; utriktayā — being freed from; bhaktyā — by a devotional attitude; viśuddha — purified; dhiṣaṇāḥ — by intelligence; pare — unto the Transcendence; tasmin — in that; nārāyaṇa — the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa; pade — unto the lotus feet; ekānta-matayaḥ — of those who are fixed in the Supreme, who is one; gatim — destination; avāpuḥ — attained; duravāpām — very difficult to obtain; te — by them; asadbhiḥ — by the materialists; viṣaya-ātmabhiḥ — absorbed in material needs; vidhūta — washed off; kalmaṣāḥ — material contaminations; sthānam — abode; virajena — without material passion; ātmanā eva — by the selfsame body; hi — certainly.
Thus by pure consciousness due to constant devotional remembrance, they attained the spiritual sky, which is ruled over by the Supreme Nārāyaṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is attained only by those who meditate upon the one Supreme Lord without deviation. This abode of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, cannot be attained by persons who are absorbed in the material conception of life. But the Pāṇḍavas, being completely washed of all material contamination, attained that abode in their very same bodies.
According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, a person freed from the three modes of material qualities, namely goodness, passion and ignorance, and situated in transcendence can reach the highest perfection of life without change of body. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī in his Hari-bhakti-vilāsa says that a person, whatever he may be, can attain the perfection of a twice-born brāhmaṇa by undergoing the spiritual disciplinary actions under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, exactly as a chemist can turn gun metal into gold by chemical manipulation. It is therefore the actual guidance that matters in the process of becoming a brāhmaṇa, even without change of body, or in going back to Godhead without change of body. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī remarks that the word hi used in this connection positively affirms this truth, and there is no doubt about this factual position. The Bhagavad-gītā (14.26) also affirms this statement of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī when the Lord says that anyone who executes devotional service systematically without deviation can attain the perfection of Brahman by surpassing the contamination of the three modes of material nature, and when the Brahman perfection is still more advanced by the selfsame execution of devotional service, there is no doubt at all that one can attain the supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, without change of body, as we have already discussed in connection with the Lord’s returning to His abode without a change of body.