स यैः स्पृष्टोऽभिदृष्टो वा संविष्टोऽनुगतोऽपि वा ।
कोसलास्ते ययुः स्थानं यत्र गच्छन्ति योगिनः ॥२२॥

sa yaiḥ spṛṣṭo 'bhidṛṣṭo vÄ
saá¹viṣṭo 'nugato 'pi vÄ
kosalÄs te yayuḥ sthÄnaá¹
yatra gacchanti yoginaḥ

 saḥ - He, Lord RÄmacandra; yaiḥ - by which persons; spṛṣṭaḥ - touched; abhidṛṣṭaḥ - seen;  - either; saá¹viṣṭaḥ - eating together, lying together; anugataḥ - followed as servants; api vÄ - even; kosalÄḥ - all those inhabitants of Kosala; te - they; yayuḥ - departed; sthÄnam - to the place; yatra - wherein; gacchanti - they go; yoginaḥ - all the bhakti-yogis.


Text

Lord RÄmacandra returned to His abode, to which bhakti-yogÄ«s are promoted. This is the place to which all the inhabitants of AyodhyÄ went after they served the Lord in His manifest pastimes by offering Him obeisances, touching His lotus feet, fully observing Him as a fatherlike King, sitting or lying down with Him like equals, or even just accompanying Him.

Purport

The Lord says in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (4.9):

janma karma ca me divyam
 evaá¹ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvÄ dehaá¹ punar janma
 naiti mÄm eti so ’rjuna

“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.†Here this is confirmed. All the inhabitants of AyodhyÄ who saw Lord RÄmacandra as citizens, served Him as servants, sat and talked with Him as friends or were somehow or other present during His reign went back home, back to Godhead. After giving up the body, the devotee who becomes perfect in devotional service enters that particular universe where Lord RÄmacandra or Lord Kṛṣṇa is engaged in His pastimes. Then, after being trained to serve the Lord in various capacities in that prakaá¹­a-lÄ«lÄ, the devotee is finally promoted to sanÄtana-dhÄma, the supreme abode in the spiritual world. This sanÄtana-dhÄma is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (paras tasmÄt tu bhÄvo ’nyo ’vyakto ’vyaktÄt sanÄtanaḥ). One who enters the transcendental pastimes of the Lord is called nitya-lÄ«lÄ-praviṣṭa. To understand clearly why Lord RÄmacandra returned, it is mentioned herewith that the Lord went to that particular place where the bhakti-yogÄ«s go. The impersonalists misunderstand the statements of ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam to mean that the Lord entered His own effulgence and therefore become impersonal. But the Lord is a person, and His devotees are persons. Indeed, the living entities, like the Lord, were persons in the past, they are persons in the present, and they will continue to be persons even after giving up the body. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ.