Merging in Brahmajyoti – falling again

Q. Kindly explain about the liberation in which people merge in to the Brahmajyoti and lose their identity and which is worse than hell.
Kindly explain whether they again have to take birth in the material world or they are freed from the cycle of birth and death.
I am asking this question for one of my colleagues who said that these people also are freed from the cycle of birth and death. I have read somewhere in Srila Prabhupada’s books that after some time the jivas become bored and take birth in the material world only to maintain a loving relation with someone or the other. Please explain.


A. You are right. Liberation by merging into the brahmajyoti is considered worse than going to hell. Sri Prabodhananda Sarasvati, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, said, kaivalyam narakayate: “The happiness of becoming one with the Supreme Lord, which is aspired for by the Mayavadis, is considered hellish.” Pure devotees do not aspire for it.

Srila Prabhupada, in several places, writes in great detail about this. One such instance appears in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.9.29):

“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 sayujya-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. We have this information from Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.2.32), wherein it is said, ‘patanty adhah’, 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 philosopher 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 rendering service unto Him, he again falls into this material world, and his service propensity is satisfied by materialistic welfare activities like humanitarianism, altruism and philanthropy.”