SB 3.29.13

Lord Caitanya taught us and how to execute pure devotional service out of spontaneous love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Siksastaka, He prays to the Lord that "My Lord, I do not wish to gain from You any wealth, neither do I wish to have any beautiful wife, neither do I wish to have many followers of Me. What I want from You that in My life after life I can remain a pure devotee of the lotus foot of Your." Now, there is a similarity between the prayers of Lord Caitanya and the statement of Srimad-Bhagavatam as mentioned herein. The Lord Caitanya prays that "in My life after life," that means a devotee does not desire even stoppage of birth and death. The yogis and the empiric philosophers desire stoppage of the process of life..., birth and death, but a devotee is satisfied to remain even in this material world and execute devotional service.

It is clearly stated herein that a pure devotee does not desire ekatyam (e-k-a-t-y-a-m). Ekatyam means to become one with the Supreme Lord, as it is desired by the impersonalists or the mental speculators or the meditators. To become one with the Supreme Lord is beyond the dream of a pure devotee. Sometimes they may accept promotion in the Vaikuntha planets to serve the Lord there, but they never will accept to be merged in the Brahman effulgence, which is considered by a pure devotee as less than hellish. Such ekatyam, or to merge into the effulgence of the Supreme Lord, is called kaivalya (k-a-i-v-a-l-y). That kaivalya, the happiness derived out of kaivalya is considered by pure devotee as hellish. The devotee is so much fond of rendering service to the Supreme Lord that all these five kinds of liberation, salokya, etc., are immaterial for him because if one is engaged in pure transcendental loving service of the Lord, it is understood that he has already achieved the five kinds of different liberation.

Now, when a devotee is promoted to the spiritual world, Vaikuntha, he gets four kinds of facilities. The one is salokya (s-a-l-o-k-y-a). Salokya means to live in the same planet as the Supreme Personality lives. The Supreme Personality, in His different plenary expansions, lives in innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and the special planet or the chief planet is the Krsnaloka planet. As within the uni..., material universe we find the chief planet is the sun, similarly in the spiritual world the chief planet is Krsnaloka. From the Krsnaloka, the effulgence, bodily effulgence of Lord Krsna is distributed not only to the spiritual world, the material also but it is covered by matter. So in the spiritual world there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and in all those planets the Lord is the predominating Deity. And a devotee gets promotion to one of such Vaikuntha planet and lives along with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sarsti (s-a-r-s-t-i), sarsti means the opulence of such a devotee is equal to the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And samipya (s-a-m-i-p-y-a), samipya means to be personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And sarūpyam (s-a-r-u-p-y-a-m), sarūpyam means the bodily feature of the devotee are also exactly like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, except two or three symptoms which is especially found in the transcendental body of the Lord. Just like Srivatsa, the hair on the chest of the Lord is particularly there, and He is distinguished from other devotees from the bodily feature by especially that…, by that mark of Srivatsa.

The purport is that a pure devotee does not accept even all these five kinds of spiritual existence even they are offered to such pure devotee, and what to speak of their aspiring after any material benefits, which are all insignificant in comparison to the spiritual benefit. When Prahlada Maharaja was offered some material benefit, he stated that "So far material benefits are concerned, my Lord, I have seen that my father achieved all kinds of material benefits and even the demigods were afraid of his opulence, but still, in a second, You have finished his life and all material prosperity." So for a devotee there is no question of desiring any material prosperity or spiritual prosperity. They are simply aspirant of serving the Lord, that is their highest happiness.