Title: Sayujya Mukti Liberation

User: Swami Gaurangapada Date: 2007-03-13 15:05:48

 

 

What is this concept mentioned in Shri Haranama cintamani?

 

 

There are five kinds of mukti or liberation described in the Shrimad Bhagavatam:

 

(1) Sarupya Mukti - Same form as the Lord

(2) Salokya Mukti - Residence in the same abode of the Lord

(3) Sarshti - Same opulence as the Lord

(4) Samipya - Intimacy or close proximity with the Lord

(5) Sayujya - merging with the Lord

 

Out of these 5, the first 4 are acceptable to the devotees if they are able to do direct devotional service to the Lord in the Vaikuntha planets.

 

But the 5th one sayujya mukti is always abhorred or striclly avoided by the devotees of the Lord because by merging with the Lord, pure devotional service disappears forever. The devotees literally consider this sayujya mukti as worse than going to hell since in hell they can atleast perform devotional service by chanting the Lord's Holy Names. Even Hanuman the great devotee prayed to Lord Rama for only one benediction: "The desire for sayujya mukti should never ever appear in my mind."

 

Sayujya Mukti is of two kinds as described in Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita:

 

(i) Brahma Sayujya - To merge in the brahman or brahmajyoti which is the spiritual effulgence from the body of the Lord. Here the soul exists simply as a spiritual spark experiencing brahmananda that is freedom from the material cycle of birth and death.

 

(ii) Ishvara Sayujya - To merge into the body of the Lord directly like Shishupala's soul and is considered even more ghastly by the devotees. Because when you merge in the impersonal effulgence of the Lord, some great devotees can come there and save you and make you qualified to go to the Vaikuntha planets to directly serve the Lord. But when the soul merges in the body of the Lord, the soul is doomed to never achieve direct devotional service to the Lord.

 

This is quoted in the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu by Shrila Rupa Goswami and also in Padyavali.

 

bhava-bandha-cchide tasyai

sprhayami na muktaye

bhavan prabhur aham dasa

iti yatra vilupyate

 

"O Lord, You are the eternal master, and I am Your eternal servant. If you really desire to give me a benediction then give me this: I do not want to ever even get the faintest glimpse of the wicked desire for mukti or liberation of becoming one with You because due to this desire the opportunity to eternally serve you in my eternal and constitutional relationship will disappear forever ." -Shri Hanuman

 

Jaya Shuddha Bhakta Shri Hanuman ki Jaya!!!

 

We invite responses and replies from other devotees to the posts. If they answer satisfactorily then I will not reply to that question so that we can move ahead. If the devotee who asked the question is not fully satisfied then I can chip in with my response too.

 

Yours in service, Swami Gaurangapada