Liberation (Mokṣa)
Final freedom from the wheel of rebirth — but freedom into what?
Mokṣa is liberation — the final freedom from the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth that the Hindu schools take to be the supreme aim of human life. What liberation is freedom into, however, differs widely: union or identity with the absolute, eternal loving communion with God, or the isolation of the pure witness-self. Every school of Hindu philosophy is, at bottom, a path and a theory aimed at mokṣa.
How it traveled
- Kaṭha UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -500explains
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- ParamārthasāraŚrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000redefines
- VivekacūḍāmaṇiŚṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400explains
- Aṣṭāvakra-gītāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1450explains
- Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1700explains
Key passages(20)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Thus always keeping the mind steadfast, the Yogi of subdued mind attains the peace residing in Me,—the peace which culminates in Nirvâna (Moksha).
Tap to expand
Reaching the highest perfection, and having attained Me, the great-souled ones are no more subject to re-birth—which is the home of pain, and ephemeral.
Tap to expand
When all desires that dwell in his heart cease, then the mortal becomes immortal, and obtains Brahman.
Tap to expand
When that god is known, all fetters fall off, sufferings are destroyed, and birth and death cease. From meditating on him there arises, on the dissolution of the body, the third state, that of univers
Tap to expand
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
'On this there is this verse: "When all desires which once entered his heart are undone, then does the mortal become immortal, then he obtains Brahman. 'And as the slough of a snake lies on an ant-hil
Tap to expand
Whean all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal — here ends the teaching.
Tap to expand
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Maitreyi said: 'My Lord, if this whole earth, full of wealth, belonged to me, tell me, should I be immortal by it, or no?' 'No,' replied Yagnavalkya, 'like the life of rich people will be thy life. Bu
Tap to expand
Pragâpati said: 'The Self which is free from sin, free from old age, from death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but what it o
Tap to expand