Dear Sangom ji,
From what I have read...Vaikuntha is made up of 2 words Vai +Kuntha.
Kuntha can be taken to mean: Limited,dull or inert.
Vai means without..so the literal meaning of Vaikuntha is without inertia/without limits/without dullness.
So I was wondering is Vaikuntha actually a location or is it just a state of mind?
Monier Williams Dictionary says that the word
kuṇṭha (कुण्ठ) means blunt, dull ; stupid ; weak ; indolent, lazy, slow ; foolish, etc., and that vai stands for indeed, truly, certainly, verily, etc. Hence what you have heard is perhaps incorrect or simple praise without basis. The purana- and itihasa- kartas have imagined
Vai kuṇṭha as a fit place for their unquestioning devout followers! The location of this
Vai kuṇṭha also changes from the northern ocean (Arctic?) to the eastern peak of mount Meru.
Now, Meru itself seems a mythical item; the same dictionary explains it as under:
a fabulous mountain regarded as the Olympus of Hindu mythology, (it is said to form the central point of Jambu-dvipa, all the planets revolving round it, and is compared to the cup or seed-vessel of a lotus, the leaves of which are formed by the different Dvipas; its height is said to be 84,000 Yojanas, 16,000 of which are below the surface of the earth ; its shape is variously described, as square, conical, spherical, or spiral, and its four faces are variously coloured, being white
towards the east, yellow to the south, black to the west, and red to the north ; the river Ganges falls from heaven on its summit, and flows thence to the surrounding worlds in four streams ; the regents of the four points of the compass occupy the corresponding faces of the mountain, the whole of which consists of gold and gems ; its summit is the resi-
dence of Brahma, and a place of meeting for the gods, Rishis, Gandharvas, etc. ; when not regarded as a fabulous mountain, it appears to mean the highland of Tartary north of the Himalaya).
It is good that saivites have mount Kailas as the abode of Siva.
