Miscellaneous - Religion   

Path to liberation

CHENNAI : While moving through the stages in one's life from childhood, youth and old age, an individual seeks to fulfil certain goals of life. Scriptures and sacred texts identify these goals as Purusharthas that are broadly classified under four categories — Dharma (seeking the values of life on which rest society and the world), Artha (seeking wealth as a means of security) Kama (enjoyment) and Moksha (liberation). While Dharma is essential at all times and in all stages of life, Moksha remains the ultimate goal of human existence, and it means liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and all the suffering and limitation entailed in embodied worldly existence, said Sri K. V. Seshadrinatha Sastrigal in a lecture.

All sastras speak of Moksha as relief from sorrow and show from different angles how one can attain it. By gaining the Jnana on the esoteric and metaphysical truths about the universe, soul, body and the Supreme Being who is responsible for creation, sustenance and ultimate dissolution of the universe, one moves towards Moksha. Moksha is not a physical destination but is a state when one stands liberated from all desires, actions and consequences and thus free from the cycle of birth and death. As long as one is caught in the cycle of Samsara, there is no chance to get relief. Knowledge of the impermanence of the body and the immortality of the soul is necessary to transcend Samsara.

It is ignorance in these matters that is the greatest hurdle to realisation. Just as dreams are known to be false only when one is awake, only when true knowledge is gained will one understand that the world is illusory and transient and try to search for the permanent peace and bliss. It is very easy to misconstrue a metal piece to be a coin in darkness, and continue to believe it to be so until light reveals its true nature. The light of Jnana removes ignorance and enables to comprehend the truth. Scriptures say that when one gains Jnana one gets Moksha and caution against the power of ignorance that plays itself as Jnana. To know ignorance as ignorance and not treat it as Jnana is the way to Moksha.

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