Sarvabhuoma Batacarya

Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya was thus converted to become one of the important devotees of the Lord, and he had no other interest than to serve the Lord. His only concern was to think of Lord Chaitanya constantly, and this meditation and chanting became the main purpose of his life. One day Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya came before the Lord, and after offering his respects he began to read a verse from the Srimad Bhagwatam. This verse is stated in the Tenth Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, in connection with Lord Brahma's prayer to the Lord. Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya wanted to change two letters in the last portion of the verse, where the word Muktipade occurs. Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya wanted to change it into Bhakti. The purport of the verse is: A person who devotes his mind, body and speech to the service of the Lord, even in the midst of miserable life due to past misdeeds, is assured of liberation. And Bhattacharya wanted to change the Mukti, to Bhakti-devotional service.    (More...)

The Lord inquired from Bhattacharya, "Why have you changed the original verse? The word is Mukti, and why have you changed it into Bhakti?" Bhattacharya replied that Mukti is not so valuable as Bhakti; and therefore Mukti is a sort of punishment for the pure devotee. He had therefore changed the word from Mukti to Bhakti. He began to explain his realization of Bhakti, and said, "Any person who does not accept the transcendental Personality of Godhead and His transcendental Form cannot know the Absolute Truth.    (More...)

Anyone who does not understand the transcendental nature of the Body of Krishna becomes His enemy and decries or fights with Him. And for such enemies of the Lord, the destination is to merge into the Brahman effulgence of the Lord. Such kind of Mukti or liberation is never befitting the devotees of the Lord. Although there are five kinds of liberation, as, (1) getting admission to the same planet in which the Lord resides, (2) being able to associate with the Lord, (3) having a transcendental body like the Lord, (4) having opulence like the Lord, and (5) merging into the existence of the Lord, a devotee is satisfied being engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, without any particular interest for any one of the above mentioned kinds of state of liberation. Specifically, a devotee is most averse to merging into the existence of the Lord, and becoming without any individual identity. A devotee considers oneness with the Lord as worse than hell, even though he may accept one of the other four kinds of liberation in consideration of being engaged in the service of the Lord. Of the two possibilities for merging in the Transcendence, namely, (1) becoming one with the Impersonal Brahman effulgence, and (2) becoming one with the Personality of Godhead, the latter is still more abominable to a devotee. The devotee has no other aspiration than to be always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. On hearing this, Lord Chaitanya informed Bhattacharya that there is another purport of the word Mukti. Muktipada means directly the Personality of Godhead. That is to say, the Personality of Godhead has innumerable liberated souls engaged in His transcendental loving service, or He is the ultimate Resort for the ninth subject, called liberation. So, in either of the above mentioned import, Krishna becomes the ultimate Shelter. Sarvabhouma replied, "Inspite of such import, I prefer Bhakti to Mukti. Although according to You, there are two kinds of imports of the word Mukti, still, because this sound is equivocal, I shall prefer directly Bhakti to Mukti because by direct perception, Mukti refers to the context of becoming one with the Supreme. I therefore hate to utter the word Mukti, and I feel enthusiastic in uttering the word Bhakti." At this, Lord Chaitanya laughed very loudly, and embraced the Bhattacharya with great love.    (More...)