Text 29]
Dhruva Mahārāja Returns Home
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motive; He is concerned with the service. But if a devotee has a particular motive, the Lord directly or indirectly knows it, and therefore He does not leave the devotee's material desires unfulfilled. These are some of the special favors by the Lord to a devotee.
Dhruva Mahārāja was offered Dhruvaloka, a planet that was never resided upon by any conditioned soul. Even Brahmā, although the topmost living creature within this universe, was also not allowed to enter the Dhruvaloka. Whenever there is a crisis within this universe, the demigods go to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and they stand on the beach of the Milk Ocean. So the fulfillment of Dhruva Mahārāja's demand—a position more exalted than that of even his great-grandfather Brahmā—was offered to him.
Here in this verse the Lord is described as  mukti-pati , which means one under whose lotus feet there are all kinds of  mukti . There are five kinds of  mukti — sāyujya ,  sārūpya ,  sālokya ,  sāmīpya , and  sārṣṭi . Out of these five  muktis , which can be achieved by any person engaged in devotional service to the Lord, the one which is known as  sāyujya  is generally demanded by Māyāvādī philosophers; they demand to become one with the impersonal Brahman effulgence of the Lord. In the opinion of many scholars, this  sāyujya-mukti , although counted among the five kinds of  mukti , is not actually  mukti  because from  sāyujya-mukti  one may again fall down to this material world. This information we have from  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , wherein it is said  patanty adaḥ , which means “they again fall down.” The monist philosopher, after executing severe austerity, merges into the impersonal effulgence of the Lord, but the living entity always wants reciprocation in loving affairs. Therefore, although the monist philosopher is elevated to the status of being one with the effulgence of the Lord, because there is no facility for associating with the Lord and rendering service unto Him, he again falls down into this material world, and his service propensity is satisfied by material welfare activities like humanitarianism, altruism and philanthropy. There are many instances of such falldowns, even for great  sannyāsīs  in the Māyāvāda school.
Therefore Vaiṣṇava philosophers do not accept  sāyujya-mukti  to be within the category of  mukti . According to them,  mukti  means transferral to the loving service of the Lord from one's position of serving  māyā . Lord Caitanya also says in this connection that the constitutional position of a living entity is to render service to the Lord. That is real  mukti . When one is situated in his original position, giving up artificial positions, he is called  mukta , or liberated. In the  Bhagavad-gītā  this is confirmed: anyone who engages in rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord is considered