Brahman-jyoti

Brahman-jyoti — the primordial light that underlies and pervades all lesser lights including the sun, moon, and stars.

Gauḍīya theology makes a move that Advaita does not — it asks: what is the source of the Brahman-jyoti? And the Bhāgavatam answers unambiguously. The Brahman-jyoti is not self-subsistent — it is the bodily effulgence emanating from Bhagavān:

"The Brahman effulgence is the personal radiance of the Supreme Lord, from whose body the universes emanate."

Just as the sun's light radiates from the sun, the Brahman-jyoti radiates from the personal form of Kṛṣṇa. The impersonal realization is therefore not false — it is real — but it is incomplete, like seeing the glow around a lamp without seeing the lamp itself. One perceives the light but has not yet turned toward its source.