Another name for salvation is apavarga. Apavarga is the opposite of pavarga, or the various miserable conditions of material existence. The word Pavarga consists of the combinations of five letters: pa, pha, ba, bha and ma. These letters are the first letters of the words for five different conditions as described below. The first letter, pa, comes from the word parabhava, which means "defeat." In this material struggle for existence, we are simply meeting defeat. Actually, we have to conquer birth, death, disease and old age, and because there is no possibility of overcoming all these miserable conditions, due to the illusion of maya we are simply meeting with parabhava, or defeat. The next letter, pha, is taken from the word phenila. Phenila is the foam which is found on the mouth when one is very tired (as is commonly observed with horses). The letter ba comes from the word bandha, or bondage. Bha is taken from the word bhiti, or fearfulness. Ma is taken from the word mrti, or death. So the word pavarga signifies our struggle for existence and our meeting with defeat, exhaustion, bondage, fearfulness and, at last, death. Apavarga means that which can nullify all of these material conditions. Krsna is said to be the giver of apavarga, the path of liberation.

For the impersonalists and the enemies of Krsna, liberation means merging into the supreme. The demons and the impersonalists do not care for Krsna, but Krsna is so kind that He gives this liberation even to His enemies and to the impersonalists. There is the following statement in this connection: "O Murari [Krsna]! How wonderful it is that although the demons, who were always envious of the demigods, have failed to penetrate Your military phalanx, they have penetrated the region of mitra, the sun globe." The word mitra is used metaphorically. Mitra means the sun globe, and mitra also means friend. The demons who opposed Krsna as enemies wanted to penetrate His military phalanx; but instead of doing this, they died in battle, and the result was that they penetrated the planet of Mitra, or the sun planet. In other words, they entered into the Brahman effulgence. The example of the sun planet is given here because the sun is ever-illuminating, like the spiritual sky, where there are innumerable illuminating Vaikuntha planets. The enemies of Krsna were killed, and instead of penetrating Krsna's phalanx, they entered into the friendly atmosphere of the spiritual effulgence. That is the mercy of Krsna, and therefore He is known as the deliverer of His enemies also.