When a devotee is promoted to the spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭha, he receives four kinds of facilities. One of these is sālokya, living on the same planet as the Supreme Personality. The Supreme Person, in His different plenary expansions, lives on innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets, and the chief planet is Kṛṣṇaloka. Just as within the material universe the chief planet is the sun, in the spiritual world the chief planet is Kṛṣṇaloka. From Kṛṣṇaloka, the bodily effulgence of Lord Kṛṣṇa is distributed not only to the spiritual world but to the material world as well; it is covered by matter, however, in the material world. In the spiritual world there are innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets, and on each one the Lord is the predominating Deity.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------3:29:13-------purport).
Śiśupāla and Dantavakra were formerly Jaya and Vijaya, the doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha. Merging into the body of Kṛṣṇa was not their final destination. For some time they remained merged, and later they received the liberations of sārūpya and sālokya, living on the same planet as the Lord in the same bodily form. The śāstras give evidence that if one blasphemes the Supreme Lord, his punishment is to remain in hellish life for many millions of years more than one suffers by killing many brāhmaṇas. Śiśupāla, however, instead of entering hellish life, immediately and very easily received sāyujya-mukti. That such a privilege had been offered to Śiśupāla was not merely a story. Everyone saw it happen; there was no scarcity of evidence. How did it happen? Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was very much surprised.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------7:1:20-------purport).
There are two kinds of liberated souls—those who are liberated by the favor of the Lord and those who are liberated by their own effort. One who gets liberation by his own effort is called an impersonalist, and he merges into the glaring effulgence of the Lord, the brahma-jyotir. But devotees of the Lord who qualify themselves for liberation by devotional service are offered four kinds of liberation, namely sālokya (status equal to that of the Lord), sāmīpya (constant association with the Lord), sārṣṭi (opulence equal to that of the Lord) and sārūpya (features like those of the Lord).
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-------1:5:30------purport).
Both realization of Brahman and meeting with the Supreme Personality of Godhead are described as liberation within one's lifetime, but meeting with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both internally and externally, is shown to be superexcellent, above the transcendental realization of the Brahman effulgence. There is a comparative study of liberation as sālokya, sāmīpya and sārūpya. Sāmīpya is better than sālokya. Devotional service is considered to be liberation with greater facilities, and there is a discussion of how to obtain it. There are also discussions of the transcendental state one achieves after attaining the devotional platform, which is the exact position of love of Godhead; the marginal symptoms of transcendental love, and how it is awakened; the distinction between so-called love and transcendental love on the platform of love of Godhead; and different types of humors and mellows enjoyed in relishing the lusty affairs of the gopīs, which are different from mundane affairs, which in turn are symbolical representations of pure love for Kṛṣṇa.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-------2:1:43------purport).
Sālokya means that after material liberation one is promoted to the planet where the Supreme Personality of Godhead resides, sāmīpya means remaining an associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sārūpya means attaining a four-handed form exactly like that of the Lord., sārṣṭi means attaining opulences like those of the Supreme Lord, and sāyujya means merging into the Brahman effulgence of the Lord. These are the five types of liberation.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-------2:6:266------purport).
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