The difference between sāmipya mukti and prīti

Reader Krishna Kiran ji asked the following question:

Question: I’m seeking to understand the distinctions between samipya mukti and the attainment of prema through uttama bhakti. While I understand samipya mukti gives the result of close association with the Lord, how does this experience differ from the state of prema cultivated through uttama bhakti, where even desire for liberation (mukti) is renounced? Doesn’t the path to samipya mukti also necessitate the development of prema first? Does bhakti based on anyabhilasita sunyam also result in samipya mukti or something different?

Reply:

It is true that the attainment of prīti is a must also for attaining sāmipya mukti. But this prīti is of an inferior grade compared to the prīti that is attained through sādhana bhakti characterized by anyābhilāṣitā śūnyam. This is stated by Śrī Jīva Goswami in the Prīti Sandarbha, Anuccheda 16.2 —

atha muktibhyo bhagavat-prīter ādhikyaṁ vivriyate | tatra yadyapi tat prītiṁ vinā tā api na santy eva tathāpi keṣāñcit teṣāṁ svasya duḥkha-hānau sāmīpyādi-lakṣaṇa-sampattāv api tātparyaṁ, na tu śrī-bhagavaty eveti teṣu nyūnatā |

Now we will explain how divine love for Bhagavān (bhagavat prīti) is superior to mukti. In this regard, although none of the varieties of mukti are possible without prīti for Bhagavān, yet for some liberated individuals, in spite of obtaining the great fortune of being in Bhagavān’s presence (sāmīpya), residing in His abode (sālokya), and so on, their aim (tātparya) in obtaining mukti is simply to gain relief from their own misery and not expressly in pleasing Bhagavān. In such individuals, prīti is understood to be inferior.

Here, we see that the prīti for Bhagavān that aims primarily at relief from misery is inferior. Such inferior prīti will naturally be attained as a result of sādhana-bhakti that is not free from other desires, i.e. sādhana-bhakti that is not uttamā bhakti.

The experience in sāmipya mukti differs from prīti, even though samipya mukti is the highest among the five types of mukti. Śrī Jīva Goswami makes the latter point in Anuccheda 16.1 of the Prīti Sandarbha —

sālokyādiṣu ca sāmīpyasyādhikyaṁ, bahiḥ-sākṣātkāramayatvāt tasyaiva hy ādhikyaṁ darśitam |

Out of the five types of mukti beginning with sālokya, sāmīpya is preeminent. Its superiority was demonstrated by virtue of the fact that the external direct vision of Bhagavān (bahiḥ- sākṣātkāra) is predominant therein.

So, sāmipya mukti is the highest type of mukti because an external direct perception of Bhagavān is superior to internal perception. In the other types of muktis, the perception of Bhagavān is primarily internal.

In prīti, however, the experience of ananda or bliss is so intense, that it renders even sāmipya mukti insignificant. Śrī Jīva Goswami demonstrates many different ways in which prīti is superior to mukti in the Prīti Sandarbha from Anucchedas 16 to 32. I reproduce just one verse from his detailed exposition below:

mat-sevayā pratītaṁ te sālokyādi-catuṣṭayam | necchanti sevayā pūrṇāḥ kuto’nyat kāla-viplutam ||

Those devotees of Mine who are completely fulfilled (pūrṇa) through divine service (sevā) to Me do not desire even the four types of liberation — beginning with eternal residence in My abode (sālokya) — which ensue of their own accord by service to Me. How then could they covet any other boon that is subject to the ravages of time? (sb 9.4.67)

Of course, anyone who has attained prīti in Bhagavān’s spiritual abode, automatically gets sāmipya to Bhagavān, because that is needed for service. Naturally, the experience in prīti encompasses and exceeds the experience in sāmipya mukti.