Liberation is often presented as the summit of spiritual life, the great exhale after lifetimes of striving. But what if freedom is not the end, only the threshold? In this episode, we gently enter a deeper vision offered by Bhakti Vedanta: a fifth dimension of consciousness in which the soul does not dissolve into peace but awakens into intimate, ecstatic love. For the thoughtful seeker who longs for more than relief from suffering—who senses that the heart was made for relationship—this exploration opens a luminous possibility beyond mere transcendence.
What Lies Beyond Liberation
Liberation isn’t the end of the journey – it’s just the doorway. Today, we will explore the fifth dimension of Bhakti, where freedom flowers into divine love.
Most of us are aware that Indian spirituality speaks volumes about liberation, or mukti. It’s referred to as the fourth dimension – a plane of existence beyond time and space. The three earlier, or previous, dimensions of consciousness, or planes of existence, discussed in sacred texts are wakefulness, dream, and deep sleep. These experiences of the self/consciousness within the material realm are known to us. The goal of human life is to move beyond these ordinary states to fully experience all the possibilities of spirit, mukti, the final, ultimate attainment.
Yet, Bhakti Vedanta speaks about a fifth dimension, a confidential liberation beyond mukti. But before we dive into the fourth and fifth dimensions, and the unique liberation of Bhakti, let’s get our bearings about some basics regarding spiritual pursuits.
We often have hazy concepts about what spiritual attainment means and what it would look like in our lives. Just because we’re not yet familiar with the fourth and fifth planes of existence doesn’t mean we can’t learn about them and become clear about our options in transcendence.
Vedanta describes that just as you choose to go to a destination you’d like to visit in this world, you can choose your final destination. It behooves us to become educated about this. Spiritual paths correspond to specific goals, and their means determine their end. Stated another way, the practice of a system and its corresponding goal are interdependent.
And different sadhana traditions culminate in different ontological outcomes. These outcomes are not interchangeable. So consciously choosing a path based on your desired prayojana, or final goal, is important. We should also be clear that the various end goals are not equal. Each sadhana system provides a different outcome for the atma. After all, we don’t all want to go to the same place! So we’re given options.
Of course, most people are nominally interested in spiritual attainment. Few are willing to make lifestyle changes that would guarantee them a spiritual goal. And among serious seekers, many people take up a practice — or identify themselves with a system they don’t practice — without really understanding where it’s leading them.
This is a problem. When our experience doesn’t match what we thought would happen, we can become spiritually fragmented, disenchanted, confused, frustrated, or just give up. And this is a true tragedy that is completely avoidable.
Also, nowadays we have the spiritual eclectic, who picks and chooses aspects of several paths and blends them. Unfortunately, we can’t mix paths mentally and still reach a coherent destination. Teachers from all traditions explain that we cannot reach higher states by mental concoction. The mind is incapable of devising a full-proof spiritual trajectory because it is a material instrument conditioned by the gunas.
The yoga philosophies are clear. Pick a path, follow it, and stick with it all the way through. To achieve a lofty goal, you have to concentrate on it. Just as we have to dig deep, drilling down in one place, to find water for a well, we need to remain focused if we want true spiritual experience.
What spiritual goals are available to us? Which one do you want? Once you decide that, your path will be clear. So let’s journey into the land of possible liberations.
Liberations correspond to different “states of being.” Further, all liberations are eternal. Once you arrive at your final destination, you stay there – forever. This is another reason why it’s imperative that we consciously choose based on knowledge. The liberations available for the self correspond to the three eternal characteristics of the self. Stay with me for a minute. This will become clear!
As we heard in earlier episodes, there are three intrinsic qualities of spirit, or consciousness. They are:
- Sat: Being
- Chit: Knowing
- Ananda: Loving
There is a liberation based on each quality. Let’s unpack this idea.
There’s a liberation that is primarily an experience of Sat, or eternal being.
Another liberation is primarily an experience of Chit, or knowledge.
And another that is primarily characterized by Ananda, or blissful love.
The self can choose a state of being steeped in one of its natural characteristics. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Our final destination would take into account our eternal nature.
The liberation achieved by attaining the Sat and Chit states is known as mukti.
The liberation of the Ananda state is known as prema.
So, there are two kinds of liberation for the atma. One is called mukti, and the other is prema. Mukti is the fourth dimension of consciousness. Prema is the fifth dimension of consciousness.
When we speak of “dimension of consciousness,” we’re referring to experiences of the conscious self. In the fourth dimension, the soul fully identifies itself as a unit of pure, brilliant, undying spirit. This spiritual state brings freedom from lamentation, fear, anger, and all suffering.
The mukti traditions offer that we can merge into All-pervasive Oneness. Although ontologically the self remains an individual, our individuality is no longer functionally expressed because our sense of self is hidden. Therefore, there is activity, no love, no emotional reciprocation because love is impossible when there is no subject–object distinction characteristic of Oneness.
There, we’re no longer harassed by the karmic justice system; we come to complete peace and relish the happiness of the true nature of the self. Just imagine, we come from the negative numbers of karmic debt that had ceaselessly hounded us, to a freeing, zero balance. After the unending chase of karma, this state is such a welcome relief. In this liberation, we rest in complete peace.
We experience atma-ananda, or the extraordinary bliss of the true self, when one is completely free from fear. It’s said that if you took all the material happiness in the world – all of it – and multiplied it hundreds of times, that cannot compare to the bliss of the self. However, with the loss of a functional individuality, this liberation is something like an unbroken deep sleep—peaceful, restorative, but without relational richness.
We all know how deeply gratifying it is to sleep so soundly that we have no remembrance of our self, thoughts, or activities to be done.
Mukti is such an enviable state! But there’s an issue in mukti. By restricting our personal identity, we limit our experience of transcendence. Mukti exhausts suffering, but it does not exhaust the soul’s capacity for love. Just as sleep is incomplete without waking, peace without love is a partial liberation. After we’re completely rested, don’t we like to get up and do something?
Bhakti Vedanta says, “Yes. Beyond peace, there is love where you happily dance.”
Prema, or divine love, is the special liberation that exalts and elevates the self instead of trying to extinguish it. It’s the post-liberated state – the fifth dimension – that offers the realized, pure self positive engagement.
Allow me to clarify something about prema. It isn’t a reward after achieving mukti; it’s the full revelation of Bhakti’s own nature, which includes and surpasses mukti. In other words, and please pay attention to this because it’s important:
A Bhakti practice is prema in a seed form. The practice of even one in a messy, conditioned state, if unmotivated by personal desire, immediately brings one in touch with the ultimate goal. A unique feature of Bhakti is that the sadhana, or practices, are on the liberated platform and are not set aside or abandoned in liberation.
The practices of other paths are given up at mukti. They are a means to an end. In Bhakti, however, the practices are the means and the end. We engage in a loving relationship with our Divine Friend by singing his names and speaking about him now, and we continue our relationship and these activities in liberation.
Mukti and Prema: From Impersonal Liberation to Eternal Loving Exchange
Rupa Goswami describes that multiplying the happiness of mukti many thousands of times cannot compare to a drop of prema. For one in prema, the depth of experiences and variety in prema make mukti appear insignificant and unattractive.
Now, Prema requires an environment. Love requires a world capable of relationships. In prema, we have left negative numbers of the material world, and gone beyond the zero of mukti, into the land of positive variegatedness, where there is all-consuming love replete with activities, opportunities, and unlimited possibilities.
In the Absolute commonwealth of the Supreme Person, we’re free to engage in loving relationships with all the residents and the Sweet Absolute, Sri Krishna and Sri Radha.
Krishna speaks about this place in the Gita where he says, “There is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.”
Vraja, the destination of Bhakti yoga, is the land of freedom from anxiety and suffering, as described in numerous Bhakti texts. We hear charming descriptions of this land of consciousness, free from all material influences. Bewilderment and delusion cease to exist. No one ages, remaining forever youthful, because this is the nature of the soul. There is no time, no death. It is a trans-space-and-time location, a transcendental dynamic plane where love pervades, is full of dynamic unity – harmonious the way music is harmonious.
We may think that unity requires that we all play the same note – or play no notes at all; but in Vaikuntha many notes play together, harmonized by the shared center of each soul: to please the all-attractive Supreme Person.
Vraja exists in the eternal present, thus everything there – the people, the land, the activities, the emotions – is ever-fresh. Each and every moment brims with the excitement of experiencing something entirely unique.
There, Krishna, the center of existence, enjoys unrestricted play with his companions, and they experience supreme ecstasy in his company. As Krishna joins his friends in the morning, they burst into song and dance— laughing, clapping, and playing their flutes, horns, and other instruments. Wearing a peacock feather in his hair, blue champa flowers behind his ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold around his waist and across his chest, and a long flower garland hanging past his knees, Krishna, the greatest of dancers, enters the forest with his friends. Those who see this express their desire for many eyes and are frustrated that their eyes blink for a fraction of a second, blocking the unsurpassed beauty of their vision.
Vraja is the highest of high worlds, the place of Sri Krishna and Sri Radha. The deepest mysteries of the universe flourish here, where we can have an intimate relationship with Krishna as servant, friend, parent, or lover.
Krishna’s humanlike form is so beautiful and approachable that we can express our love freely, with the greatest intimacy. All distance between the finite and the Infinite is removed, and the soul and the Infinite become best friends or the most intimate lovers. The supreme extent of divine love is that Krishna, the crest jewel of lovers, cannot give up his innate characteristic to come under the control of his beloved devotees; he accepts their mastery over him with great affection and submits to them completely. His happiness lies in their happiness. Krishna gives others more joy than he derives from them because Krishna is joy personified!
Krishna himself says, “Knowing my opulences, the whole world looks upon me with awe and veneration. But devotion made feeble by such reverence does not attract me.”
And later Krsna tells his friend Uddhava, “The eight-step yoga, knowledge of oneself as one with Brahman, religiosity, Vedic study, all kinds of austerity, and selflessness in asceticism – none of these can bind me as intense devotion does. I can be reached only by Bhakti, or devotional love born of unalloyed faith.”
The Bhakti texts give us details about the activities and psychology of the Supreme Person, drawing our hearts closer by getting to know the person named Krishna.
Rupa Goswami cautions, “My dear friend, if you are indeed attached to your worldly friends, do not look at the smiling face of Krishna as he stands on the bank of the Yamuna River. Casting charming, sidelong glances, he places his flute to his lips, which seem like delicate new blossoms. His transcendental body, bending in three places, appears very bright and attractive in the moonlight.”
One who sees the source of truth, beauty, and harmony is overcome with love and loses interest in worldly affairs. Entry there is granted by Krishna and Radha to those who have qualified themselves through prema-kirtan of their holy names. Chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra takes us there on the happy wave of sacred sound, offering us our highest prospect: a spiritual body and position in the world of love and beauty.
In summary, other paths end suffering; Bhakti fulfills the soul’s deepest nature by bringing it into eternal loving exchange with the Sweet Absolute.
Thank you for joining me in this sacred exploration. Please like, share, and subscribe if this resonated with you. I’d love to hear your reflections in the comments below.
Until next time: Trust the power of love.
Sarve janah bhagavatah saranam yantu; tasmin sarane eva mangalasya purnata.
May all beings gently move toward the shelter of Bhagavan; in that shelter alone, auspiciousness finds its fullness.
