Text 29] Dhruva Maharaja Returns Home 399
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 Maharaja was offered Dhruvaloka, a planet that was never re-
sided upon by any conditioned soul. Even Brahma, 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 Kgirodakagayi Visnu, and
they stand on the beach of the Milk Ocean. So the fulfillment of Dhruva
Maharaja’s demand—a position more exalted than that of even his great-
grandfather Brahma—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—sayujya, sarupya, salokya, samipya, and sarsti. 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 sayujya is generally demanded by
Mayavadi philosophers; they demand to become one with the impersonal
Brahman effulgence of the Lord. In the opinion of many scholars, this
sdyujya-mukti, although counted among the five kinds of mukti, is not
actually mukti because from sayujya-mukti one may again fall down to
this material world. This information we have from Srimad-Bhagavatam,
wherein it is said patanty adah, 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 phi-
losopher 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 render-
ing service unto Him, he again falls down into this material world, and his
service propensity is satisfied by material welfare activities like humanitar-
ianism, altruism and philanthropy. There are many instances of such fall-
downs, even for great sannyasis in the Mayavada school.

Therefore Vaisnava philosophers do not accept sayujya-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 maya. 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-gita this is confirmed: anyone who
engages in rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord is considered
