Passtimes are so intense...

We may question why realised devotees would choose to absorb themselves in seemingly mundane acts related to the maintenance of the dhāma, rather than cultivate their esoteric relationship with it. The ācāryas’ answer is wonderful: When set upon the background of the material energy, Kṛṣṇa’s prakaṭa pastimes are so intense that neither He nor the Vraja-vāsīs recall their eternal identities.

In Gopāla-campū (Pūrva-campū 1.1.35), Jīva Gosvāmī refers to Lord Brahmā’s comments on the nature of Kṛṣṇa’s earthly pastimes: “My dear master, although You have nothing to do with material existence, You come to this earth and imitate material life just to expand the varieties of ecstatic enjoyment for Your surrendered devotees.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.37) Śrī Jīva explains that this “imitation” generates an absorption in Kṛṣṇa and His associates that is unmatched, even by the Lord’s eternal activities. The BBT purport to that Bhāgavatam verse summarises Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s explanation why this is so: “[He] points out that just as a lamp does not seem to shine as brightly in sunlight as it does in the shade, or as a diamond does not seem as brilliant on a silver platter as it does on a plate of blue glass, the Lord’s pastimes as Govinda do not seem as amazing in the transcendental abode of Vaikuṇṭha as they do within the material realm of Māyā. Lord Kṛṣṇa comes to the earth and acts towards His pure devotees exactly like a devoted son, boyfriend, husband, father, friend, and so on, and within the darkness of material existence these brilliant, liberated pastimes give unlimited ecstasy to the surrendered devotees of the Lord.”