7.5. The Role of Muktas in Akṣaradhāma

Here a question arises: So, then, after being as the servant, das or upāsaka what do they actually do in Akṣaradhāma?

Svāminārāyaṇa makes clear that because the muktas are absolutely perfect and fulfilled. They have no reason to strive for anything, nor anything further to strive for. They are now and forever in the direct fellowship of Parabrahman, who, Svāminārāyaṇa adds, “is always present there (in Akṣaradhāma) to bestow supreme bliss upon those muktas.” (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/38) The liberated selves thus have no need or desire for anything else. They remain fully engrossed in Parabrahman alone, continuously experiencing his supremely blissful self. Because his bliss is so inexhaustibly rich and everlastingly gratifying, there is never an instance of the muktas being bored or satiated, and so they are continuously engaged in as Svāminārāyaṇa describes it, “the darśana' of Parabrahman.” (Vacanamrut Loyā 14).

‘Darśana’, can be taken here to mean literally seeing Parabrahman (for the muktas do have divine, Brāhmika senses and faculties, just like Parabrahman), and also, more deeply, as having the vision or realization of Parabrahman, i.e. experiencing him and thus enjoying his presence.

Indeed, when elaborating upon the following phrase in Praśna-upaniṣad 5/5,

“sa etasmājjīvaghanāt parātparaṃ puriśayaṃ puruṣamīkṣate |” (Praśna-upaniṣad 5/5)

“That mukta sees Puruṣottama, supreme among all living beings, dwelling in that abode.”

Bhadreśadāsa chooses to render the verb ‘iksate’ “sākṣātkaroti” (literally, to see) as ‘sākṣātkaroti’, i.e. to directly realize.

He further mentions:

“yathā daṇḍaviśiṣṭaṃ puruṣamīkṣata ityukte daṇḍopīkṣaṇakarma bhavati tathaiveha jīvaghanaparabhūtākṣarabrahmaparatvaviśiṣṭapuruṣamīkṣata |” (Praśna-upaniṣad 5/5, p.219)

“As one sees a person with a stick, that means the stick also becomes the object of the sentence like the persons. Similarly, a liberated self, when it looks at Parabrahman with Akṣarabrahman, Akṣarabrahman is also included as the object of the sentence.”

While such seeing or realization is sometimes framed as 'service' (Sevā) or the mukta described as an 'attendant (sevaka, daśā or, pārṣadas), this is only because of the abiding sense of loving and reverential servitude the liberated selves feel towards Parabrahman, their lord.^[1]

Innumerable freed selves are seated around Lord Puruṣottama, seated on a divine throne in the center of the abode. They all are lost in always gazing devotionally at the beauteous form and figure of Lord Puruṣottama (sadā pasyanti surayah).^[2] In Parabrahman’s abode, all the muktas are busy beholding the divine personality of Parabrahman and thus are enjoying the ultimate bliss flowing from Him. All muktas are brahmarūpa (brahmanized) and are engaged in tending Parabrahman devoutly as His servitors.^[3] A freed self has an integrated and all-inclusive perceptual cognition of Parabrahman in the form of ceaseless vision with all His glory and attributes. A freed self’s mind and senses -all get fully satiated even in simply looking at His divine personality. It is a unified vision in which, along with eyes, other senses also derive equally fulfilling joy.

The Taittirīya and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣads say that Parabrahman is of the nature of joy or bliss (ānanda).^[4] The Chāndogya Upaniṣad says that the experience of the infinite alone is joy.^[5] This is realized in the state of liberation because the freed self actually experiences it. It is not a passive state of satiation once for all, but a dynamic and ever eager state to have more and more of it. As Akṣaradhāma (the supreme Abode of Parabrahman) is beyond the limitations of three-dimensional space and time, the wonder is that there is no front or back or side, nor far nor near in it. In other words, the Lord Puruṣottama, seated in the center, on the divine-royal-throne (divya simhāsana), is seen and experienced by each of the innumerable released selves as the closest in front of him. Each one is directly in frontal face-to-face contact with the full personality of Parabrahman, whether they be present on the sides or back of the Lord from our three-dimensional parameters of prakṛtika world.^[6]

According to SSS^[7], the muktas (freed selves), in the divine abode (Brahmapura/Akṣaradhāma), have the only desire to enjoy the ‘sukha’ or the bliss of Lord Puruṣottama alone and from Him alone. Besides this, they do not have any thought in their mind. On the other hand, the Lord Puruṣottama also, out of His overflowing grace, love, and compassion, simultaneously and ceaselessly, keeps gifting the happiness-bliss in equal measure to all of them. Moreover, the SSS explores:

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/21, Gadh. 1/63, Gadh. 1/64, Amd.6

[2]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/13

[3]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/31

[4]:

Taittiriya-upaniṣad 2/8

[5]:

Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 7/23/1

[6]:

Vacanamrut Loyā 14

[7]:

Svāminārāyaṇa Siddhāntasudhā Kārikā 440