Verse 2.3.108-111

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 2.3.108-111:

चतुर्-विधेषु मोक्षेषु सायूज्यस्य पदं त्व् इदं ।
प्राप्यं यतीनाम् अद्वैत-भावना-भावितात्मनाम् ॥ १०८ ॥
महा-संसार-दुःखाग्नि-ज्वाल-संशुष्क-चेतसाम् ।
असार-ग्रहिणाम् अन्तः-सारासाराविवेकिनाम् ॥ १०९ ॥
मयैव कृष्णस्यादेशात् पतितानां भ्रमार्णवे ।
निज-पादाम्बुज-प्रेम-भक्ति-सङ्गोपकस्य हि ॥ ११० ॥
भगवद्-भजनानन्द-रसैकापेक्षकैर् जनैः ।
उपेक्षितम् इदं विद्धि पदं विघ्न-समं त्यज ॥ १११ ॥

catur-vidheṣu mokṣeṣu sāyūjyasya padaṃ tv idaṃ |
prāpyaṃ yatīnām advaita-bhāvanā-bhāvitātmanām || 108 ||
mahā-saṃsāra-duḥkhāgni-jvāla-saṃśuṣka-cetasām |
asāra-grahiṇām antaḥ-sārāsārāvivekinām || 109 ||
mayaiva kṛṣṇasyādeśāt patitānāṃ bhramārṇave |
nija-pādāmbuja-prema-bhakti-saṅgopakasya hi || 110 ||
bhagavad-bhajanānanda-rasaikāpekṣakair janaiḥ |
upekṣitam idaṃ viddhi padaṃ vighna-samaṃ tyaja || 111 ||

catur-vidheṣu–amongst the four kinds; mokṣeṣu–of liberation; sāyujyasya–of becoming one with the Lord; padam–the state; tu–indeed; idam–this; prāpyam–to be attained; yatīnām–by sannyāsīs; advaita-bhāvanā–the monistic conception; bhāvita-ātmanām–by those souls who contemplate; mahā–great; saṃsāra–of the world of birth and death; duḥkha–of sufferings; agni-jvālā–by flames of the fire; saṃśūṣka-cetasām–whose hearts are dried up; asāra–the valueless; grāhiṇām–who have grasped; antaḥ–between; sāra–meaningful; asāra–and meaningless; avivekinām–who cannot distinguish; mayā–by me; eva–indeed; kṛṣṇasya–of Śrī Kṛṣṇa; ādeśāt–by the order; patitānām–of the fallen; bhrama-arṇave–in the ocean of illusion; nija–own; pāda-ambuja–lotus feet; prema–love; bhakti–devotion; saṅgopakasya–hiding; hi–certainly; bhagavatbhajana–worship of the Lord; ānanda–bliss; rasa-eka–only for sweet mellows; apekṣakaiḥ–by those who hanker; janaiḥ–by persons; upekṣitam–abandoned; idam–this; viddhi–you should understand; padam–the state; vighna-samam–like an impediment; tyaja–just leave.

This is the realm of sāyujya-mukti, one of the four kinds of liberation. Only those sannyāsīs whose hearts are steeped in the monistic sentiment of oneness with the Absolute attain this place. Their hearts dried up by the fire of suffering in material existence, bereft of any ability to discriminate between what has value and what is worthless, they reach this abode of sāyujya. Ordered by Śrī Kṛṣṇa to conceal the path of loving devotion to His lotus feet, I have cast those sannyāsīs into an ocean of illusion and perplexity. Therefore, those eager to relish the bhakti-rasa of blissfully worshiping Śrī Bhagavān avoid this abode. You should also abandon this place, seeing it as an obstacle to your path.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

Śrī Mahādeva says, “Therefore, it does not befit you to stay here in mukti-pada, the abode of impersonal liberation.” This is explained in four verses, beginning here with catur-vidha. He says, “Please listen to the reason for this. Of the four types of liberation, sāyujya-mukti, or nirvāṇa, presides here, and only those sannyāsīs whose hearts are engrossed in feelings of oneness (advaita) between themselves and the Supreme Absolute attain this abode of sāyujya.”

In Śrī Harivaṃśa, Śrī Bhagavān says to Śrī Arjuna:

ब्रह्म-तेजो-मयं दिव्यं महद् यद् दृष्टवान् असि
अहं स भरत-श्रेष्ठ मत्-तेजस् तत् सनातनम्
प्रक्र्तिः सा मम परा व्यक्ताव्यक्ता सनातनी
तां प्रविश्य भवन्तीह मुक्ता योग-विद्-उत्तमाः
सा साङ्ख्यानां गतिः पार्थ योगिनां च तपस्विनाम्
तत् परं परमं ब्रह्म सर्वं विभजते जगत्
ममैव तद् घनं तेजो ज्ञातुम् अर्हसि भारत

brahma-tejo-mayaṃ divyaṃ mahad yad dṛṣṭavān asi
ahaṃ sa bharata-śreṣṭha mat-tejas tat sanātanam
prakrtiḥ sā mama parā vyaktāvyaktā sanātanī
tāṃ praviśya bhavantīha muktā yoga-vid-uttamāḥ
sā sāṅkhyānāṃ gatiḥ pārtha yogināṃ ca tapasvinām
tat paraṃ paramaṃ brahma sarvaṃ vibhajate jagat
mamaiva tad ghanaṃ tejo jñātum arhasi bhārata

O best of the Bharata dynasty, the divine, brilliant manifestation of Brahman that you are seeing is My eternal splendor. That manifest and unmanifest parāprakṛti (superior spiritual potency) is also My eternal potency. The best of yogīs obtain liberation by entering this prakṛti (potency). This abode of mukti is attained by jñānīs: those who reach the state of liberation by knowledge and renunciation; yogīs: those who attain it by mysticism; and tapasvīs: those who attain it by austerity and asceticism. I am Parabrahman, and that which illuminates the entire universe is nothing but the luster of My body. O Bhārata! Understand this to be My concentrated effulgence.

Although some claim that Śrī Kṛṣṇa took Arjuna to the Lokāloka Mountain situated at the center of the universe, the above passage is referring to another incident that took place at another time. Alternatively, it can be said that loka refers to the fourteen planetary systems and aloka refers to the region beyond them that is surrounding this universe. The abode of mukti-pada, also known as Mahākāla-pura, is obtained by traversing loka and aloka.

In the original verse, five adjectives beginning with advaita are used in Śrī Mahādeva’s explanation of why liberation is suitable expressly for those renunciants, or sannyāsīs. He says, “This abode of sāyujyamukti is suitable for those renunciants who ignorantly accept that which is nonessential (asāra-grāhī). Lacking discriminating intelligence (viveka), they are absorbed in oneness and nondifference (advaita). Such renunciants have no discrimination between what is real and what is unreal (sāra-asāra). In other words, despite contemplating the real and apparent, they fail to identify that which is of true value and cannot understand what is the spiritual essence (sāra-vastu).”

Therefore, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.4), Śrī Brahmā states:

श्रेयः-सृतिं भक्तिम् उदस्य ते विभो क्लिश्यन्ति ये केवल-बोध-लब्धये
तेषाम् असौ क्लेशल एव शिष्यते नान्यद् यथा स्थूल-तुषावघातिनाम्

śreyaḥ-sṛtiṃ bhaktim udasya te vibho kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām

Just as by beating empty husks of grain, one reaps only fatigue, those who abandon bhakti, the inexhaustible lake of all auspiciousness, and simply endeavor to obtain speculative knowledge, find only distress.

Śrī Mahādeva says, “Thus, those whose hearts have been withered by the flames of suffering in this world worship the abode of liberation where they hope to find nirvāṇa, freedom from material distress in the annihilation of individual existence. Ordered by Śrī Bhagavān to conceal loving devotion to His lotus feet, I have drowned in an ocean of delusion those persons influenced by the concept of absolute oneness (advaita).”

In Padma Purāṇa, Śrī Śiva himself states:

माया-वादम् असच्-छास्त्रं प्रच्छन्नं बौद्धम् उच्यते मयैव वक्ष्यते देवि कलौ ब्राह्मण-रूपिणा
ब्रह्मणश् चापरं रूपं निर्गुणं वक्ष्यते मया सर्वस्य जगतो’प्य् अस्य मोहनार्थं कलौ युगे

māyā-vādam asac-chāstraṃ pracchannaṃ bauddham ucyate mayaiva vakṣyate devi kalau brāhmaṇa-rūpiṇā
brahmaṇaś cāparaṃ rūpaṃ nirguṇaṃ vakṣyate mayā sarvasya jagato’py asya mohanārthaṃ kalau yuge

O Devī, in the age of Kali, in the form of a brāhmaṇa, I propagate impersonalism (Māyāvāda), or concealed Buddhism, by the means of impure scriptures. That philosophy propounds as the topmost conception the oneness of the jīvātmā (the minute, individual soul) and Paramātmā (the Supersoul), and the nature of Brahman to be without qualities. In order to destroy the entire world by bewildering people’s intelligence, I have concealed the genuine meanings of the Vedas by the non-Vedic, fabricated philosophy of Māyāvāda.

Śrī Gopa-kumāra might question Śrī Śiva, “How could you commit such a contemptible act?”

Śrī Śiva replies, “I acted on Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s order.”

As stated in the beginning of the Bṛhad-sahasra-nāma-stotra, Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, “svāgamaiḥ kalpitais tvaṃ ca janān mad-vimukhān kuru–O Śaṅkara, conceal Me by turning these people against Me, using the fabricated tantra-śāstras.” Therefore, Śrī Śiva says, “O Devī, thus ordered by the Lord, I have propagated the false scriptures among those averse to Śrī Hari.”

Śrī Mahādeva concludes, “Thus, those eager to relish the blissful taste of devotional service, or bhajana, to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, always scrupulously avoid this abode of liberation. In particular, because there is not even a scent of devotion in sāyujya liberation, you (Gopakumāra) should immediately abandon this place. Sāyujya-mukti is an impediment to loving devotion to the Lord.”