What is Moksha (Liberation)? Can I know more about it?

What is moksha? What is Liberation?

Do you like happiness or unhappiness?

Happiness, right?

Have you ever noticed that if you experience unhappiness after experiencing happiness, you do not like it?

Therefore, you are actually in search of permanent happiness not temporary happiness. Permanent happiness, after which no kind of unhappiness can touch you, is what is liberation. 

The moksha definition is to attain the awareness of being free. Even while living, the awareness of ‘I am free’ should always be there.

If you want liberation (mukti) from all karma and you want full moksha, then you must first become free from ignorance (of the Self). Once the ignorance has left, you will find that things will be simpler and straightforward; there will be peace and day by day, you will experience more and more bliss and you will find freedom from karma.

Two stages of moksha (liberation)

There are two stages of moksha.

The first stage of moksha can be experienced in this life itself, but only after attaining Self Realization from a living Gnani Purush (Self-Realized one). In this stage of moksha, you experience a sense of freedom from unhappiness in this very life.

The second stage of moksha is attained when you become free from all your karmas ie: freedom from all attachment of worldly atoms. Not a single atom remains attached to your Soul. In order to attain this stage, you need to have the total and complete experience of the Soul in your last life and be in a human body. It is only with this body that you can see the whole universe, including each and every atom of the universe and then achieve ultimate salvation. After you have all these experiences then you go to moksha, Siddha Kshetra (the permanent abode of absolutely liberated Souls).

Who can give moksha?

Salvation is not from scriptural knowledge; it is from the experiential Gnan (Knowledge). The experience of Gnan can only be obtained from the Gnani Purush (Self-Realized one), who is the embodiment of absolute experience of the Self. Scriptures do not point out our mistakes, they address everyone in a common format. Does a picture of a lamp give light? The limitation of scriptures is like that of a drawing of a lamp. True light can only be given by a Gnani, who is the enlightened lamp! 

The entire world wanders around in ignorance as a result of not knowing the path to liberation and as a consequence, they get lost wherever they go. If you want liberation, ultimately you will have to go to the Gnani (Self-Realized one). Even when you want to go to the Railway Station, you have to ask someone who knows the way there. But this path to liberation is narrow, complicated and like a labyrinth. If you attempt it on your own, you are bound to get lost so look for a Gnani and follow His footsteps exactly.

What understanding do you attain during the Self Realization Ceremony?

In Akram Vignan, the scientific process of Self Realization takes 2 hours, wherein the Gnani Purush (Self-Realized one) graces the seeker and imparts the experiential Knowledge of the Self along with the knowledge of the doer in this universe.

• The knowledge of the Self: Is to come to the answer of ‘Who am I?’

• The knowledge of the Doer: All events in this universe are under the control of scientific circumstantial evidences. There is no independent doer. This world is run solely by scientific circumstantial evidences. There is no one up there who has the time to run all this. Param Pujya Dadashri refer to these scientific circumstantial evidences as vyavasthit shakti (Natural energy of scientific circumstantial evidence). It keeps everything and everyone organized. Vyavasthit renders total satisfaction in every situation.  

What’s wrong in this worldly life? Why should one attain moksha?

In our lives, we constantly practice some form of religion. After making so much effort, there should be some kind of result, but we do not know what kinds of results we should get, and we just keep on practicing. We conduct business for profit, get married, have children and buy a house with the intent that it will result in peace, but it brings us misery also. How can we become free from misery and attain permanent happiness? If we attain moksha, then we not only become free from misery, but become free from our karmas as well. This is why we should attain moksha.

How can you know whether you have attained moksha or not?

When you become free from self-ignorance then you achieve the stage, which is free from all unhappiness. In this stage, you will experience that you are doing something different with your life than you did before Self Realization. From this experience, you will be able to see your own mistakes and that is the proof that you have achieved the first stage of moksha, as an awakened Soul is impartial. You can know this because you are a Soul and the Soul is the greatest judge in this universe.

Is such freedom or moksha experienced while one is living or is it the freedom that comes after death?

What is the point of having freedom after you are dead? This is how people become conned into promises of moksha after death and become trapped. Of what use is a pending moksha to you in this life? You need to be able to experience or get a taste of it right here and now. Otherwise, how can one be sure whether there is such a thing as moksha? You need to have the moksha in your hands, like ready cash. You should be able to experience this moksha while you are alive.

Does the physical body resides in moksha?

After Self Realization, you have to remain the Knower-Seer, without any attachment-abhorrence (raag-dwesh), therefore you do not need a physical (sthool) body in the permanent abode of absolutely liberated Souls (Siddha Kshetra). The Soul (atma) is able to Know and See, as well as remain in eternal bliss without a physical (sthool) body. Moreover, the Soul never dies, it is eternal and indestructible by nature.

What do you do in moksha?

Once you have attained liberation and gone to Siddha Kshetra (the permanent abode of absolutely liberated Souls), you remain in the infinite bliss of the Self while being the Knower and Seer of the whole universe including the plane of existence of humans, animals, plants, and other life-forms, celestial world and the realm of existence of hellish beings.