The Liberation and Moksha in Vedanta

7. The Liberation and Moksha in Vedanta

The individual soul is called “Jīva,” from the root jīv which means “to live.”

Both according to the cosmic and the acosmic views, the individual is not different in essence from the absolute spirit.

The analogy of the two birds is given, not to teach that the Jīva and Brāhman are different, but to show what makes for their apparent difference:

On the self-same tree a person immersed (in the sorrows of the world) is deluded and grieves on account of his want of strength. But he becomes free from sorrow, when he sees the other who is worshipped (by many) and who is the Lord, and also his greatness.

The Kaṭha compares the supreme self and the individual soul to light (ātapa) and shade (chāyā) respectively. The Praśna says:

Thus it will be seen that what makes for the state of Jīva is the apparent condi­tioning of the self by a complex of body and mind. It is these latter that account for the soul's transmigration and travail.

In the Taittirīya doctrine of Koṣas,five sheaths of the soul are men­tioned:

In later Vedanta, the first is also known as the gross body (sthūla-śarīra), the next three constitute the subtle body (sūkṣma- śarīra), and the last is called the causal body (kāraṇa-śarīra) - ignor­ance or nescience (avidyā).

These together constitute “the empirical home” of the soul. Being conditioned by these, the soul becomes the subject of experience and enjoyment.

The Kaṭha Upaniṣad compares the self to the lord of the chariot, the body to the chariot, the intellect to the charioteer, the mind to the reins, the senses to the horses, and the sense-objects to the roads; and it adds that the individual soul as associated with the body, the senses and the mind, is the experient or enjoyer (bhoktṛi).

In all experience and enjoyment, the mind or manas, of course, is the central factor.

The Brihadāraṇyaka enumerates the main functions of the mind—desire, resolve, doubt, faith, lack of faith, steadfastness, lack of steadfastness, shame, intellection, fear—and says that all these are manas only.

The mind functions through the sense-organs which are ten in number:

five of cognition - the organs of sight (cakṣus), hearing (śrotra), touch (tvac), taste (rasana) and smell (ghrāṇa); and

five of action - the organs of speech (vāc), grasping (pāṇi), moving (pāda), excretion (pāyu) and generation (upastha).

Manas, as the central organ of con­sciousness, gathers knowledge through the cognitive sense-organs, inte­grates the bits of information thus gathered and acts with the aid of one or more of the organs of action.

The body (annamāyā) and the breath (Prāṇamāyā), which are graded below manas, are respectively the physical basis of the soul's activity and enjoyment, and the principle of life which makes for the animation of the body.

The vijñānamaya and the ānandamaya which are higher than the manomaya represent the moral and the supra-moral levels of experience.

In describing the different parts of the vijñānamaya, the Upaniṣad says:

“Faith (śraddhā) is its head; righteousness (ṛita), the right side; truth (satya), the left side; contemplation (yoga) the body; might (mahas), the lower part, the foundation."

The ānandamaya is the highest reachable level of experience for the Jīva in its state of bondage. Here it enjoys, for a temporary period, peace and happiness. Such is the case in deep sleep, as also in the enjoyment of aesthetic pleasure.

This experience, however, is not to be confused with mokṣa, which is spiritual freedom, unconditioned and eternal. The state of mokṣa is designated “the fourth" (caturtha or turīya), to distinguish it from the three states of empirical existence, viz. waking, dream and sleep.

The soul, in the view of the Upaniṣads, is not born with the body, nor does it perish therewith:

What happens at death is only the decease of the physical body.

The soul migrates from life to life, being conditioned by the cause of such migration - ignorance, and by the instrument which enables it to migrate - the subtle body.

We first meet with a clear reference to the transmigration-doctrine in the Brihadāraṇyaka:

Asked as to what happens to a dead man after the different components of his body are resolved into the elements like fire, etc., Yājñyavalkya is reported to have taken the questioner aside and discoursed on rebirth to him in private.

Giving the gist of the discourse, the Upaniṣad says: “What they said was karman. What they praised was karman. Verily, one becomes good by good works, and evil by evil."

In a later context the same sage explains more fully his views on rebirth:

On death the soul shuffles off its present body and enters a new one, as a caterpillar, having come to the end of a blade of grass, draws itself together and takes a leap to another blade.

This process is also comparable to a goldsmith making a newer and more beautiful form like that of the fathers, or of the Gandharvas, or of the gods, or of Prajāpati, or of Brāhma, or of other beings.

The kind of form that the soul takes would depend on its previous karman:

The rebirth of the human soul in the sub-human species is also held to be possible. The Kaṭha-Upaniṣad, for instance, says:

The Chāndogya declares:

“Those who are of praiseworthy conduct here—the prospect is, indeed, that they will enter a noble womb, either the womb of a brāhmin, or the womb of Kṣattriya, or the womb of a Vaiśya.

But those who are of hateful conduct here—the prospect is, indeed, that they will enter an ignoble womb, either the womb of a dog, or the womb of a swine, or the womb of an outcaste."

The view is also held that when a person dies, he may go to other regions, like heaven and hell, to eke out his merit or demerit as the case may be, before he takes another birth in this world.

Referring to those who are attached to sacrificial forms, the Muṇḍaka says:

Anticipations of the karma-doctrine are to be found in the Vedic con­cept of ṛita which meant not only the ordered course of things but the moral order as well,

and also in the notion of Iṣṭāpūrta, according to which the merit acquired by a man through sacrifices and acts of charity pro­cures for him happiness in a hereafter.

The principle of karman is the counterpart in the moral realm of the physical law of causality.

But what is worthy of note is that the philosophy of the Upaniṣads postulates the possibility of the soul's release from the cycle of karman.

Mokṣa, or release, is the goal of every man; and release consists in the soul's freedom from the need to be re-born.

There are two views in the Upaniṣads regarding the nature of the goal. According to one of them, mokṣa is attainable only after death; and according to the other, it can be attained here in this very life.

The former of these views is, in effect, an inheritance from the eschatological doctrines of the Mantras and the Brāhmaṇas according to which heaven is a far-off place which could be reached by the soul only after it has cast off its physical body.

But this view is transformed in the Upaniṣads. The ideal is no longer a becoming something which one is not, but attaining Brāhman with which the soul is identical in essence:

“Into Brāhman which is the soul of mine” says the seer of the Upaniṣad, “I shall enter on departing hence.”

The soul which thus realizes its identity with Brāhman is said to go by the path of the gods (deva-yāna), which is different from the path of the fathers (pitṛi-yāna) which is for the bound soul still in the course of rebirth.

The path of the fathers lies through smoke, the night, the dark half of the month, the six months during which the sun moves southward, the world of the fathers, and space, to the moon, and then back to this world.

The path of the gods takes the soul through light, the day, the bright half of the month, the six months during which the sun moves northward, the year, and the sun, to the moon.

Here it is said, a person who is non-human (a-mānava-puruṣa) appears and leads the soul on to Brāhman. This mode of attaining release came to be called in later Vedanta krama-mukti, or the path of gradual release.

The other view of the goal, which is in accord with the acosmic conception of the Absolute, is that release is not a state to be newly attained, as it is the eternal nature of the self itself.

When ignorance which is the cause of bondage is dispelled by wisdom, the soul realizes its non- difference from Brāhman; and this is release, which, therefore, need not wait till the decease of the body.

In later Vedanta, this view of Mokṣa came to be known as sadyo-mukti, instantaneous release, and Jīvan-mukti, release while yet living.

So far as the content of release is concerned there is no difference between the two views. Mokṣa is release from bondage, freedom from saṁsāra. It is not a mere negative state of absence of sorrow; it is absolute bliss, undisturbed peace.

The course of life that a man should adopt in order to be able to attain Mokṣa is outlined in several of the Upaniṣad texts.

Generally, the Upaniṣads assume on the part of the aspirant a high grade of ethical culture:

Because the moral life is assumed as a condition precedent for enquiry into Brāhman-Ātman, the Upaniṣads do not elaborate on ethical codes. But even as it is, there are many texts where, in unmistakable terms, good life is insisted upon.

In Upaniṣads like the Taittirīya, instructions are to be  found even as regards the most ordinary rules that an individual should adopt in his dealings with others.

In the Brihadāraṇyaka, an entire philosophy of ethics is summarized in the three rules:

''Cultivate self-control’' (dāmyata), "Be generous" (datta), and "Have compassion" (dayadhvam), given respectively to the three classes of beings, demons, men and gods.

The man who has realized Brāhman is, no doubt, declared to be above rule. It is stated that he may live as he likes. But this only means that there is no question of external constraint in his case; he is perfectly moral by his very nature.

So, it is a travesty of the Upaniṣad teaching to say that "the possession of metaphysical knowledge actually cancels all past sins and even permits the knower unblushingly to continue in "what seems to be much evil," with perfect impunity.

Forgetfulness of the true nature of the self is, according to the Upaniṣads, the foundation of bondage.

This brings about the soul's wrong identification with the ego, mind and body; and in consequence thereof, the soul is caught in the wheel of birth and death. The path to release must naturally be a reverse process.

The soul has first to withdraw itself from the narrow limitations of empirical existence, by breaking the walls of finitude.

This has to be accomplished by the cultivation of the spirit of renunciation (vairāgya or tyāga). But renunciation could be complete only with the dawn of knowledge. It is through knowledge of Brāhman that ignorance is finally overcome.

The knowledge that is referred to here is not to be identified with discursive thought or theoretical appreciation of the non-duality of the self. Brahman is to be known by being it.

The process of realizing Brāhman is through three stages: śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana.

The first stands for the study of the Upaniṣads under a proper guide. The second requires an intellectual conviction in what the Upaniṣads teach, obtained through untiring reflection and logical analysis. The third stage which is continued meditation leads to the final wisdom.

As aids to contemplation, many modes of meditation known as vidyās are taught in the Upaniṣads. The aim of all such discipline is to lead the aspirant to the knowledge of the non-dual reality.

"If a person knew the self as 'I am He,’ then, with what desire, for love of what would he cling to the body?" It is for such a consummation that the Upaniṣadic seer prays: