not the perfect stage
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Imported quote 16198 As stated before, after attainment of the highest stage of self-realization, one becomes situated in the devotional service of the Lord. The perfection of devotional service is the attainment of love of God. Love of God involves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the devotee, and the process of devotional service. Self-realization (brahma-bhūta) is the beginning of spiritual life; it is not the perfectional stage of complete spiritual realization. One may understand that he is not this body and has nothing to do with this material world. That realization is his freedom or liberation from material entanglement, but that is not the perfectional stage. The perfectional stage begins with the activities of the self-realized position. One must act in the understanding that a living entity is eternally the subordinate servitor of the Supreme Lord-otherwise there is no meaning of bhakti, or self-realization, if one is puffed up with the idea that he is the Supreme Brahman, or that he has become one with Narayana, or that he has merged into the supreme brahma-jyoti effulgence, he has not grasped the perfection of life. The self-realized may be highly learned and have understanding, but that is not the perfectional stage. In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that persons who are falsely puffed up and who think they have become liberated by understanding their constitutional position as Brahman, or spirit soul, are factually still contaminated. Their intelligence is not purified because they have no understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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