Verse Text
vahamāneṣv api sadā jṣāna-vijṣāna-mādhurīm |
kadambādiṣu sāmānya-dṛṣṭyābhāsatvam ucyate ||231||
Translation
Consciousness, discrimination, and the experience of sweetness described in the kadamba tree and other objects should be understood to be only a semblance to those items because they have only consciousness without discriminating powers.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Consciousness (jṣānam) is certainly present in trees and other objects, and even a little higher understanding (vijṣānam). Though they have awareness as if they were humans, that will disappear in them in order to conceal from them the confidential pastimes. In some places they are described as having emotions, but this should be taken as only a general form, not with discriminating powers:
kevalena hi bhāvena gopyo gāvo nagā mṛgāḥ
ye ’nye mūḍha-dhiyo nāgāḥ siddhā mām īyur aṣjasā
The inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, including the gopīs, cows, unmoving creatures such as the twin arjuna trees, animals, living entities with stunted consciousness such as bushes and thickets, and snakes such as Kāliya, all achieved the perfection of life by unalloyed love for Me and thus very easily achieved Me. SB 11.12.8
Thus it sāmānya-dṛṣṭyā means that they have consciousness without discriminating powers.