SB 4.20.23
prthur uvaca
varan vibho tvad varadesvarad budhah
katham vrnite guna-vikriyatmanam
ye narakanam api santi dehinam
tan isa kaivalya-pate vrne na ca
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
My dear Lord, You are the best of the demigods who can offer benedictions. Why, therefore, should any learned person ask You for benedictions meant for living entities bewildered by the modes of nature? Such benedictions are available automatically, even in the lives of living entities suffering in hellish conditions. My dear Lord, You can certainly bestow merging into Your existence, but I do not wish to have such a benediction.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
There are different kinds of benedictions according to a person’s demands. For karmis the best benediction is promotion to the higher planetary systems, where the duration of life is very long and the standard of living and happiness is very high. There are others, namely jñanis and yogis, who want the benediction of merging into the existence of the Lord. This is called kaivalya. The Lord is therefore addressed as kaivalya-pati, the master or Lord of the benediction known as kaivalya. But devotees receive a different type of benediction from the Lord. Devotees are anxious neither for the heavenly planets nor for merging into the existence of the Lord. According to devotees, kaivalya, or merging into the existence of the Lord, is considered as good as hell. The word naraka means “hell.” Similarly, everyone who exists in this material world is called naraka because this material existence itself is known as a hellish condition of life. Prthu Maharaja, however, expressed that he was interested neither in the benediction desired by the karmis nor that desired by the jñanis and yogis. Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Prabhu, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, described that kaivalya is no better than a hellish condition of life, and as for the delights of the heavenly planets, they are factually will-o’-the-wisps, or phantasmagoria. They are not wanted by devotees. Devotees do not even care for the positions held by Lord Brahma or Lord Siva, nor does a devotee desire to become equal with Lord Visnu. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Prthu Maharaja made his position very clear.