FIVE TYPES OF MUKTI (LIBERATION) AND CHOICE OF DEVOTEES!
Liberation means getting out of the material bondage and getting into the spiritual sky.
After reaching the spiritual sky, the soul attains different status according to the bhawa he had developed when the person was alive.
Based on the destination after getting liberated, there are five kinds of liberation.
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 29 Verse 13 states:
“A pure devotee does not accept any kind of liberation — salokya, sarsti, samipya, sarupya or ekatva — even though they are offered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
(i) EKATVA – To become one with the Lord:
Mingling with the Lord’s formless brahmam (Brahma jyoti). This state involves loss ofj identity of individual athma.
This Ekatva state is desired by the mental speculators, meditators and impersonalists to eliminate their own existence and merge with the brahmam.
(ii) SALOKYA – to live with the Supreme Lord on the same planet:
This state means the soul, without losing its identity lives in any of the Spiritual Vaikunta planets where different forms of the Lord live.
In this kind of liberation a devotee is promoted to a planet where one may live with the Lord.
The destination planet depends upon the form of Lord that is worshipped by the devotee.
(iii) SARUPYA LIBERATION- to have the same features as the Lord:
In Sarupya type of liberation a devotee develops bodily features which are exactly similar to the bodily features of the Supreme Lord.
(iv) SARISHTI LIBERATION – to enjoy the same opulence as the Lord:
In Sarishti liberation, the opulence (beauty, wealth, strength, knowledge, and renunciation) of a devotee becomes dominant like the Supreme Lord.
(v) SAMIPYA LIBERATION – to live as a companion of the Lord:
In Samipya liberation, a devotee has the great fortune of being in personal association of the Supreme Lord.
WHAT IS THE CHOICE OF DEVOTEES?
Nothing.
A devotee has no prayers to Krishna because he has surrendered to Krishna and He knows that Krishna knows what to give him and Krishna will give only the best to him.
(FOLLOWING MULTIPLE CONCEPTS IN DEVOTION – DEMERITS! READ HERE!)
In Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Gosvami says:
“A devotee, what to speak of rejecting material sense gratification, does not even want any of the five kinds of liberation. He is satisfied simply by discharging loving service to the Lord. That is the characteristic of pure devotion.”
In Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-ninth Chapter, verses 12 and 13, Srila Kapiladeva, while instructing His mother, has given the following characteristics of pure devotional service:
“My dear mother, those who are My pure devotees, and who have no desire for material benefit or philosophical speculation, have their minds so much engaged in My service that they are never interested in asking Me for anything–except to be engaged in that service. They do not even beg to live in My abode with Me.”
This is the greatness of the devotees of Krishna as they do not pray even for FIVE TYPES OF MUKTI (LIBERATION).
(MUKTI or MOKSHA – WHAT SHOULD BE THE TARGET OF DEVOTEES? READ HERE!)