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According to Vaishnavism, there are six kinds of liberation from Samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth). They're each defined in relation to Vishnu, since Vaishnavas consider Vishnu to be the supreme goal:

  1. Ekatva, or oneness with the Atma
  2. Salokya, or living in the same world as Vishnu
  3. Sarshti, or having the same opulences as Vishnu
  4. Samipya, or being a personal associate of Vishnu
  5. Sarupya, or having the same form as Vishnu
  6. Sayujya, or having the same experiences as Vishnu

I discuss Ekatva in my question here. But the real goal for Vaishnavas is Sayujya, where one has the privilege of eternal service to Vishnu and one has the same blissful experiences that Vishnu himself has. In this verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam, the sage Kapila says that a devotee of Vishnu should reject the other five forms of liberation:

A pure devotee does not accept any kind of liberation — sālokya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya, sārūpya or ekatva — even though they are offered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

But apparently this isn't the only Srimad Bhagavatam verse that makes this point. In his work the Virodha Parihara, the Sri Vashnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan quotes another verse:

It is said in Bhagavatha,

ḻokeśu viśnūh nivasanthi kecith

samīpam rccanthi ca kecidhanye

anye thu rupam sadhrsam bhajanthe

sāyujyam anye sa thu mūkśaukthah

'[S]ome live in the same realm with the Lord which is sAlOkya; others live very close to Him, that is, sAmeepya; Yet others acquire a form similar to Him known as sArupyam; Some others enjoy the same pleasures with the Lord, that is sAyujya which alone is called mOksha.'

My question is, where is this verse in the Srimad Bhagavatam? At first glance I'm not able to find it. Are there any translations or commentaries on this work of Vedanta Desikan that provide a verse number for this?

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    @Sai Hmm, that's interesting. The concept of these different types of liberation is certainly universal among Vaishnavas, so I assumed that their relative value was also universally agreed upon. But it looks like Gaudiya Vaishnavas think that Sayujya is the same as Ekatva/Kaivalya, and that devotional service to Vishnu is higher than Sayujya. Sri Vaishnavas, on the other hand, believe that Sayujya involves unending devotional service to Vishnu in his highest abode of Paramapadam, whereas Kaivalya is a different state which some Sri Vaishnavas even believe is temporary as opposed to eternal. Apr 5, 2015 at 5:18
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    @Creator Those Canto titles are fairly arbitrary things put by Prabhupada. Apr 5, 2015 at 17:15
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    @Creator Well, the actual activity that you would be doing in a state of Sayujya would be eternal service to Vishnu. But the experiences you would have would be the exact same experiences that Vishnu has. (Like if Vishnu is saving Gajendra or giving birth to Brahma, you would feel the experience of doing those things.). By the way, you can read the Srimad Bhagavatam in Sanskrit here: sanskritdocuments.org/doc_purana/bhagpur.itx I tried searching in this document as well, but I couldn't find the verse. Apr 5, 2015 at 18:49
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    @Creator I found a book that does a good job of explaining the Srivaishnava viewpoint on this: tinyurl.com/mt6gtfp "According to the Vishistadvaita Vedanta, moksha is the attainment of a status equal to that of Brahman (sayujya) enjoying the blissful Brahman along with His full glory. As Vedanta Desika has rightly explained on the basis of Ramanuja's view, moksha is paripurna-brahmanubhava or full and perfect experience of Brahman and the eternal divine service (nitya-kainkarya) to which the Alvars refer is to be taken as an outflow of that ananda experienced by the jivatma in... moksha Apr 22, 2015 at 2:06
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    @ChinmaySarupria Advaitins believe that Ekatva is the highest, but Sri Vaishnavas believe that Ekatva is lower, and some Sri Vaishnavas believe that Ekatva is only a temporary state after which the Jiva is reborn; see my question here: hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36 Nov 6, 2015 at 12:12

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