74 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 2
the battlefield saw Lord Kysna at the front, they appreciated His beauty,
and their dormant instinct of love of God was awakened. Sigupala saw
the Lord also, but he saw Him as his enemy, and his love was not
awakened. Therefore Sigupala achieved oneness with the Lord by
merging in the impersonal glare of His body, called the brahmajyoti.
Others, who were in the marginal position, being neither friends nor
enemies but slightly in love of Godhead by appreciating the beauty of
His face, were at once promoted to the spiritual planets, the Vaikunthas.
The Lord’s personal abode is called Goloka Vrndavana, and the abodes
where His plenary expansions reside are called the Vaikunthas, where the
Lord is present as Narayana. Love of Godhead is dormant in every living
entity, and the entire process of devotional service unto the Lord is meant
for awakening this dormant, eternal love of Godhead. But there are degrees
of such transcendental awakening. Those whose love of God is awakened
to the fullest extent go back to Goloka Vrndavana planet in the spiritual
sky, whereas persons who have just awakened to love of Godhead by
accident or association are transferred to the Vaikuntha planets. Essen-
tially there is no material difference between Goloka and Vaikuntha, but
in the Vaikunthas the Lord is served in unlimited opulence, whereas in
Goloka the Lord is served in natural affection.

This love of God is awakened by the association of pure devotees of the
lord. Here the word parthastra-putah is significant. Those who saw the
beautiful face of the Lord on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra were purified
first by Arjuna when he made his onslaught with arrows. The Lord
appeared for the mission of diminishing the burden of the world, and
Arjuna was assisting the Lord by fighting on His behalf. Arjuna personally
declined to fight, and the whole instruction of the Bhagavad-gita was
given to Arjuna to engage him in the fight. As a pure devotee of the Lord,
Arjuna agreed to fight in preference to his own decision, and thus Arjuna
fought to assist the Lord in His mission of diminishing the burden of the
world. All the activities of a pure devotee are executed on behalf of the
Lord because a pure devotee of the Lord has nothing to do for his person-
al interest. Arjuna’s killing was as good as killing by the Lord Himself. As
soon as Arjuna shot an arrow at an enemy, that enemy became purified of
all material contaminations and became eligible to be transferred to the
spiritual sky. Those warriors who appreciated the lotus feet of the Lord
and saw His face at the front had their dormant love of God awakened, and
thus they were transferred at once to Vaikunthaloka, not to the impersonal
state of brahmajyoti as was Sigupala. Sigupala died without appreciating
the Lord, while others died with appreciation of the Lord. Both were
