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by
Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL
No. 104
October : 2009
LIBERATION, MUKTI, MOKSHYA, – WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
QUESTIONS FROM READERS
QUESTION 1 FROM SRI TARAPADA GOSWAMI
Is liberation achievable in life? Can liberated humans will ever walk on earth?
ANSWER: This question relates more to the concept of liberation. Strictly speaking liberation means freedom from all bondage and attachments and rising above their influence even to the last trace. Therefore a truly liberated human being is a contradiction of terms.
But all our efforts, the yoga of all lives is to reach that stage of perfect development and absolute detachment because in that stage alone we believe lies true happiness and bliss. Since unhappiness is not our nature, lives after lives we seek and progress towards that stage. All our lives and next lives are stages in that progression.
When we talk of liberation in life – a term very loosely used as jeevanmukta and many disciples imagine their gurus as such – we think of some one who is beyond these influences. But this is not true. Any one who is still a living entity in a particular form (body) under particular conditions and environment, he remains chained to the natural demands of that body and its surroundings. He is not free from them.
By yoga what we achieve is a progressive development from an inferior state to a more developed state. It is still a ‘stage’ in the process. We are in it because we experience a higher degree of happiness as we go along. From hundreds of bondings that keep us attached to unhappiness we keep on shedding some seeing their futility. That is the higher stage of happiness. That is why comparatively more enlightened souls are generally happier than others. But none is liberated yet.
No two individual human beings have the same level of Brahman consciousness. Mental enlightenment at any time is also a state of mind.
The final stage of enlightenment that understands and transcends all forms of bondage and thereby becomes mukta or liberated, is identified with Paramatma (the supreme soul) and not the jivatma (the individual soul). Only when the union is accomplished between Pramatma and Jivatma one is free.
Body or our physical existence is also a bondage. We do not accept this truth. We are so attached to the physical and its false pleasures that we simply can not imagine that there could be another existence beyond physical, beyond the body that is more blissful.
In that existence there is no form, no mind and no intellect but a consciousness of all forms, all minds and all knowledge. That is Brahmatva – the true nature of all liberated souls.
QUESTION 2 FROM SRI YESHWANT R SANE
Should "Ramayana and Mahabharata" be treated as mere psychic canvass for learning "Spiritual Science" as stated in "Essays on Gita "by Mahayogi Aurobindo or as a part of "History and/in Literature"as materialist Marxists or present Judiciary would prefer/committed to perceive and decide?
History- no matter how distorted or questioned may be- is always taken from life and never separated from life. It is a chronicle of events and experiences lived through. Literature too always reflects life.
The other reality is that, life is also the bedrock of all knowledge and is the very process of learning. Separating knowledge and learning from life is inconceivable.
When we come to knowledge, the sanatan philosophy is clear about its definition.
AdhyAtmajnAnanityatvam tattvajnArthadarsanam
Etat jnAnam iti proktam ajnAnan yat atah anyatha.
Knowledge of the eternal Brahman and His essential nature is what jnana is. Rest are all exercises in ignorance.
Therefore, when you take history or literature or science, spiritual knowledge is inseparably integrated in all. All knowledge, all useful knowledge eventually end up in that essence of all truths – jnanam, jneyam in jnanagamyam the source itself.
Sometimes we may fail to notice the link due to our tendency to judge things with myopic considerations. But the inherent truth overshadows and moulds all actions in life. Yah pasyati sah pasyati - Those who see, verily see it. How can Ramayana or Mahabharata, otherwise known as itihasas (history) be any different? They are all chronicles of life as well as canvas for psychic knowledge.
QUESTION 3 FROM SRI T CHANDAR
Can a sAdhaka have a separate identity of his own, once realization of Brahman happens?
ANSWER: We have discussed all these points extensively in AHWAN. If you please go through them you will find the answers.
SAdhaka, sAdhanA and sAdhya (Brahman) all become one when Brahmanhood (Brahmatva) is reached. The great river Ganges loses its identity when it reaches the ocean and merges with it. You can not separate it out any more. All is one ocean only.
(As the Mundaka Upanishad tries to explain, the river keeps on rushing to the ocean . When it meets the ocean and realises what the ocean is, it has lost all its existence. There remains no river, only the ocean.
YathA nadyah syandamAnAh samudre astam gacchanti nAmarupe vihAya
TathA vidwAn nAmarupAt vimuktah parAtparam purusam upeiti divyam
Like this river, the wise also lose their very existence- astam gacchanti and then meet the divine being, the purusam divyam. Please read ‘The debate - Form and formless Part 3’ in AHWAN December 2004 issue).
QUESTION 4
Can the effect of Prarabdha Karma be undone?
ANSWER: It is true that all karmas are governed by the principle of cause and effect and all karmic effects must come to pass. But the only purpose of this principle is to ensure that the jiva understands that it has to reap what has been sown. It is a lesson to be learnt in life (or lives) and thereby improve and enlarge the boundaries of our knowledge, which in turn raises our level of consciousness of the ultimate truth. Once the lesson is learnt the shackles of karma no more bind the jiva.
While prarabdha, culled out of sanchita, is considered by some as our destiny in this life, the impact of prarabdha on our life (on our psyche) is greatly dependent on the agami (kriyamana) in this life. If one is born with a lot of negative prarabdha its effect can greatly be nullified by good agami in life. We may not be able to atone everything in one life but positive agami acts counter to negative prarabdha and vice-versa. That is how the jiva modifies and creates his own destiny. The impact of prarabdha on our psyche can be substantially increased or reduced by the quality (guna) of our agami or kriyamana in this life. Our scriptures cry loud in constantly extolling us never to deviate from the path of dharma and thereby create a protective shield around. The ignorants fail to keep this in mind and for all evils blame the destiny as the fate-accompli.
The scriptures clearly explain:
Agate visamam dasham daivam arhayate narah
Atmanam karmadoshancha na sochati apanditah.
When misfortune strikes man blames his fate or destiny. The fact that it is his own creation, does not strike the ignorant.
(Suggested reading for more about karma theory: ‘Understanding our own position’ in July 2000 issue of AHWAN)
QUESTION 5 FROM Mr IRAN DOKHT
Why is Vishnu called the 'Lord of the Sacrifice'?
ANSWER:
To understand why Vishnu is the Lord of sacrifice we can take the assistance of The Srimad Bhagavad Gita where some explanation is available in the chapter nine.
What is a sacrifice? It is the endevour, which all entities in the creation indulge in as a part of the process of the dynamic creation all around. Every action that takes place through the moving and unmoving or inert bodies as a characteristic of the creation is indeed a sacrifice – the purpose being to transform everything from one state to another improved state.
Having understood that, we now understand the role of Vishnu in it. Vishnu who is also synonymous with Krishna is the aspect of Brahman who is associated with the dynamic character of the universe. He is the reason for its prabhava or its ‘coming into being’, its sthana or its sustenance and support, and also its transmutation or pralaya. All jivas or individual souls are indeed created by Vishnu or Krishna out of Himself.
Who is doing the sacrifice? It is the jivas or the individual souls. So it is Vishnu who is the cause, as well as the instigator of all sacrifice.
Why are sacrifices made? As we understood earlier, it is the very process for delivering the soul from an inferior state to a higher state. That is the creations very nature.
Who is responsible for soul’s purification? It is Vishnu again.
All sacrifices are offered back to Vishnu who then ensures the soul’s progressive refinement in its journey to the final destination.
We return to Vishnu again.
The entire dynamic process of creation, all sacrifices made by all in the process that sustains it, the progressive development and the final outcome, everything revolves around one and only entity- Brahman whose dynamic aspect we recognize in Vishnu.
The Bhagavad Gita summerises this:
Aham kratuh aham yajnah svadhA aham, aham aushadham
Mantrah aham, aham eva Ajyam aham agnih aham hutam
I am the very act of sacrifice, I am the sacrificial yajna, the offering, its essence, the utterance of intention. I am the nourisher of the sacrifice, I am the transforming fire and I am the consecration.
The entire creation is indeed a grand sacrifice –the mahayajna. (Read about it in ‘Attempts to describe Brahman’ –Part 5 in AHWAN September 2003 issue and other parts, ‘Sustaining God consciousness’ in November 2005 issue)
A very interesting graphic description one also finds in The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad chapter 6 slokas 9 onwards.
Once this majestic concept is comprehended all doubts about who is the Lord of sacrifices are put to rest.
Aham hi sarvayajnAnAm bhoktA cha prabhureva cha;
I am in this Yajna the only Lord and receiver of all offerings. The giver, the taker and the very act itself. All are indeed me.
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Sri Bimal Mohanty 2000
