Sāyujya
Sāyujya, “union with Śrī Hari”
Grammar: neuter noun, from sayuj (joined, united): “the state of being united”.
Meaning: union with Bhagavān Vishṇu, becoming one with Śrī Hari; the fifth of the five kinds of mukti, after sālokya (living in his loka), sārshṭi (lordship like his), sāmīpya (nearness) and sārūpya (a form like his). Also called brahmātmaikatva, the oneness of Brahman and the ātmā.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa speaks of sāyujya most often in praise of the bhaktas who do not seek it.
The bhaktas who do not ask for it. Bhagavān Kapila tells his mother Devahūti: “Some bhaktas, who delight in serving my feet, do every act of their senses for my sake alone. They do not desire the sāyujya-moksha that is the oneness of Brahman and ātmā; meeting one another, they praise my deeds.” Seeing his divine forms, his līlās, his smiling glances and sweet words, their very prāṇas fly to him, and for such people that very bhakti brings the moksha that is the oneness of Brahman and ātmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 25). The nirguṇa bhaktas delight only in his service, and even if they are given sālokya, sārshṭi, sāmīpya, sārūpya or sāyujya, becoming one with Śrī Hari, they do not take them (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 29). Śrī Hari tells Durvāsa Maharshi in Vaikuṇṭha: “My bhaktas, content with my service, do not desire even sālokya, sāmīpya, sārūpya and sāyujya. Need it be said that they do not desire svarga and the other lokas, which are devoured by time?” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 4).
Reached by a mind fixed on him. Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira: “It is my settled view that a man does not attain sāyujya with Bhagavān Vishṇu even by bhakti-yoga in the way that one attains it who holds firm enmity and becomes absorbed in him.” As the larva shut in by the bee, remembering only the bee, takes its very form, so many, fixing the mind on Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa by desire, by hatred, by fear or by friendship, shed their faults and attained sāyujya with him: the gopīs by kāma, Kaṃsa by fear, Śiśupāla and other kings by hatred, the Yādavas by kinship, the Pāṇḍavas by friendship, “we by bhakti” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 1). Śuka tells Parīkshit: “Those who always hold Śrī Hari in their minds with love, as the gopīs, or with anger, as Śiśupāla, or with fear, as Kaṃsa, or with friendship, as Arjuna, or with bhakti, as Nārada, attain sāyujya with him” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 29).
By washing his feet. Akrūra says to Śrī Kṛshṇa: “Mahābali, by washing your two feet, became worthy of praise; more than that, he gained unequalled aiśvarya and also the sāyujya which the desireless bhaktas attain” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 41).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa: Bhagavān Sūrya teaches Dhātṛśarman the four kinds of moksha, of which sāyujya is born of jñāna. He says: “Viprendra, you will attain sāyujya moksha, and that moksha of yours will last till the end of the manvantara.” Saying this Bhagavān Bhāskara withdrew (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 7). In the next chapter Śakraśarman goes on with the pūjā of the devas for ten thousand years, free of obstacles and old age, and after leaving the body attains Sūrya-sāyujya (Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 8).
In the Brahma Purāṇa: at the close of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s life on earth, Vyāsa tells the munis, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa joined the ātmā with the Ātmā in the form of Vāsudeva, left the human body, and attained the threefold gati: the supreme mukti that has the form of sālokya, sārūpya and sāyujya (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 211).
In his teaching of sāṅkhya and yoga, Vyāsa tells the munis that the pure yatis, carried up by the Pravaha wind, pass through the high states of rajas and sattva into Nārāyaṇa, who takes them into himself and brings them to his own form. For those mahātmās who lived beyond the pairs such as pleasure and pain, with satya, ārjava (straightness) and compassion to all beings, that sāyujya is the highest gati. The followers of sāṅkhya and of yoga alike seek sāyujya with Nārāyaṇa, the imperishable, eternal Paramātma-tattva from whom creation, sustaining and dissolution go forth. When the munis asked whether the freed return, Vyāsa answered with the image of sleep: as the senses rest in the ātmā in sleep and work again on waking, so the yatis who have gained sāyujya rest in the Paramātmā Nārāyaṇa, and at the time of his creation enter again into the dharma of creation. Fulfilled in sāyujya-moksha, they are born again at creation in the houses of the pure, and after leaving that body they gain moksha again. For them there are only higher and higher courses; births as animals and dwelling in naraka do not come to them (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 240).
Related terms: Mukti · Moksha · Sālokya · Sāmīpya · Sārūpya · Bhakti
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 25, 29; Skandha 7, Chapter 1; Skandha 9, Chapter 4; Skandha 10, Chapters 29, 41
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapters 7–8
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 211, 240