Text 13] Explanation of Devotional Service 1241

even desire the cessation of birth and death. The yogis and empiric
philosophers desire cessation of the process of 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 ekatva,
oneness with the Supreme Lord, as desired by the impersonalists, the
mental speculators and the meditators. To become one with the Supreme
Lord is beyond the dream of a pure devotee. Sometimes he may accept
promotion to the Vaikuntha planets to serve the Lord there, but he never
will accept merging into the Brahman effulgence, which he considers to be
worse than hellish. Such ekatva, or merging into the effulgence of the
Supreme Lord, is called kaivalya, but the happiness derived from kaivalya
is considered by the pure devotee to be hellish. The devotee is so fond of
rendering service to the Supreme Lord that the five kinds of liberation are
not important to him. If one is engaged in pure transcendental loving
service to the Lord, it is understood that he has already achieved the five
kinds of liberation.

When a devotee is promoted to the spiritual world, Vaikuntha, he
receives four kinds of facilities. One of these is salok ya, living on the same
planet as the Supreme Personality. The Supreme Person, in His different
plenary expansions, lives on innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and the chief
planet is Krsnaloka. Just as within the material universe the chief planet is
the sun, similarly in the spiritual world the chief planet is Krsnaloka.
From Krsnaloka, the bodily effulgence of Lord Krsna is distributed not
only to the spiritual world but to the material world as well; it is covered
by matter, however, in the material world. In the spiritual world there are
innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and on each one the Lord is the predom-
inating Deity. A devotee can be promoted to one such Vaikuntha planet
to live with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In sdrsti liberation the opulence of the devotee is equal to the opulence
of the Supreme Lord. Samipya means to be a personal associate of the
Supreme Lord. In sariipya liberation the bodily features of the devotee
are exactly like those of the Supreme Person but for two or three symp-
toms which are found exclusively on the transcendental body of the
Lord. Srivatsa, for example, the hair on the chest of the Lord, particularly
distinguishes Him from His devotees.

A pure devotee does not accept these five kinds of spiritual existence,
even if they are offered, and he certainly does not hanker after material
benefits, which are all insignificant in comparison with spiritual benefits.
When Prahlada Maharaja was offered some material benefit, he stated:
