When devotion reaches a purified state endowed only with sattva, the mind becomes transparent, devoid of the turbidity of motives and desires begotten from the samskaras left by past karma. Ultimately, love is transformed into jnana, which destroys all awareness of separation, the product of avidya. The object of worship or devotion becomes the subject: ‘Devotion to Vasudeva, the Bhagavan, quickly generates abhorrence for sensual life and bestows the transcendental knowledge which is beyond the grasp of logical controversies’ (Srimad Bhagavata: The Holy Book of God, trans. Swami Tapasyananda (Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1980). 1.2.7). This transcendental knowledge manifests bhagavat-tattva-vijnana, the intuition of the Supreme Being as the absolute Reality. That is the ultimate realization of a devotee.
This brings liberation from the bonds of samsara: ‘When the
Supreme Soul is thus intuited within oneself, the knots of the heart that make one
feel oneself as an ego (one with the body) are severed, and all the accumulated
karmas of the past as also those in the offing are liquidated’ (Srimad
Bhagavata: The Holy Book of God, trans. Swami Tapasyananda (Madras: Ramakrishna
Math, 1980). 1.2.21).
This is mukti, the highest of the four purusharthas, goals of human life. It is a state where all bondages are annulled and an unhampered
freedom is felt. It is the achievement, or rather the recovery, of the natural
divinity, bliss, and perfection of the soul, much like the retrieval of a lost
treasure trove. The freedom is from maya and her delusions: ignorance, doubt,
misery, fear, egoism, passion, desire, attachment, and the sense of difference,
which constitute impurities of the mind.
This is the realization of Brahman as stated in the
Bhagavata:
When both these bodies, the gross and the subtle, fabricated
on the Atman by ignorance, are sublated through the awareness of their base — that
is the realization of Brahman (Srimad Bhagavata: The Holy Book of God, trans.
Swami Tapasyananda (Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1980). 1.3.33).