pÄ«nÄhi-bhogotthitam adbhutaá¹ mahaj
jyotiḥ sva-dhÄmnÄ jvalayad diÅ›o daÅ›a
pratÄ«ká¹£ya khe 'vasthitam Ä«Å›a-nirgamaá¹
viveÅ›a tasmin miá¹£atÄá¹ divaukasÄm
pÄ«na - very great; ahi-bhoga-utthitam - issuing from the serpent's body, which was meant for material enjoyment; adbhutam - very wonderful; mahat - great; jyotiḥ - effulgence; sva-dhÄmnÄ - by his own illumination; jvalayat - making glaring; diÅ›aḥ daÅ›a - all the ten directions; pratÄ«ká¹£ya - waiting; khe - in the sky; avasthitam - individually staying; Ä«Å›a-nirgamam - until the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, came out; viveÅ›a - entered; tasmin - in the body of Kṛṣṇa; miá¹£atÄm - while observing; divaukasÄm - all the demigods.
From the body of the gigantic python, a glaring effulgence came out, illuminating all directions, and stayed individually in the sky until Kṛṣṇa came out from the corpse’s mouth. Then, as all the demigods looked on, this effulgence entered into Kṛṣṇa’s body.
Apparently the serpent named AghÄsura, because of having received association with Kṛṣṇa, attained mukti by entering Kṛṣṇa’s body. Entering the body of Kṛṣṇa is called sÄyujya-mukti, but later verses prove that AghÄsura, like Dantavakra and others, received sÄrÅ«pya-mukti. This has been broadly described by ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura with references from the Vaiṣṇava-toá¹£aṇī of ÅšrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ«. AghÄsura attained sÄrÅ«pya-mukti, being promoted to the Vaikuṇá¹ha planets to live with the same four-armed bodily features as Viṣṇu. The explanation of how this is so may be summarized as follows.
The effulgence came out from the python’s body and became purified, attaining spiritual Å›uddha-sattva, freedom from material contamination, because Kṛṣṇa had stayed within the serpent’s body, even after the serpent’s death. One may doubt that such a demon, full of mischievous activities, could attain the liberation of sÄrÅ«pya or sÄyujya, and one may be astonished about this. But Kṛṣṇa is so kind that in order to drive away such doubts, He had the effulgence, the individual life of the python, wait for some time in its individuality, in the presence of all the demigods.
Kṛṣṇa is the full effulgence, and every living being is part and parcel of that effulgence. As proved here, the effulgence in every living being is individual. For some time, the effulgence remained outside the demon’s body, individually, and did not mix with the whole effulgence, the brahmajyoti. The Brahman effulgence is not visible to material eyes, but to prove that every living being is individual, Kṛṣṇa had this individual effulgence stay outside the demon’s body for some time, for everyone to see. Then Kṛṣṇa proved that anyone killed by Him attains liberation, whether sÄyujya, sÄrÅ«pya, sÄmÄ«pya or whatever.
But the liberation of those who are on the transcendental platform of love and affection is vimukti, special liberation. Thus the serpent first entered the body of Kṛṣṇa personally and mixed with the Brahman effulgence. This merging is called sÄyujya-mukti. But from later verses we find that AghÄsura attained sÄrÅ«pya-mukti. Text 38 explains that AghÄsura attained a body exactly like that of Viṣṇu, and the verse after that also clearly states that he attained a completely spiritual body like that of NÄrÄyaṇa. Therefore in two or three places the BhÄgavatam has confirmed that AghÄsura attained sÄrÅ«pya-mukti. One may then argue, How is it that he mixed with the Brahman effulgence? The answer is that as Jaya and Vijaya, after three births, again attained sÄrÅ«pya-mukti and association with the Lord, AghÄsura received a similar liberation.
