Moksha ; The Ultimate Artha

Do you drink coffee every morning? Let’s suppose your answer is “yes”. So, if you wake up and stay without drinking coffee early morning and you still feel alive and energetic, that’s one level of Moksha.

‘Moksha’ is a popular terminology derived from the Hindu granthas that simply means : liberation i.e. ‘mukti’. Moksha is equivalent to ‘Nirvana’ in Buddhism. However, this concept in Buddhism adheres in belief that there is no self (no soul) and everything is emptiness.

Whereas ‘Moksha’ which is the concept of Hinduism; accepts the existence of self (soul) and realization of liberating knowledge.

Attaining moksha is the ultimate goal of every individual as everybody wants to be liberated from the suffering of body, mind and ego and finally be united with the self –divine. Moksha can also be interpreted as the liberation from the maya be web and cycle of birth, death and reincarnation and worldly materialistic pleasures. Too many people believe that death gives Moksha, but no one is ready to die now; bitter reality.

However, one should never forget that Moksha can be achieved both in life and after death. Well, it can be simply understood that death can lead to Moksha. After all, with the end of one’s life it is certain that miseries, ego, greed, jealousy, love, hatred and everything else that we want to get rid of throughout our lifetime; will definitely come to an end.

So, the question is how can we achieve moksha while we are still alive?

It’s pretty clear that death is not an option. Just imagine, suppose you know that your death is next moment, will you feel joyful? Definitely not. Even though we know that we could achieve every level of moksha after that. This means every human being wants to achieve moksha while they are still breathing the air of their surroundings.

But how?

Firstly, let go of your ego and desires. It is a fact that we are all perfectly imperfect and that’s perfectly alright. The reason why we never consider ourselves perfect is because we are never satisfied with what we have at the present, at the moment. We are always caged with the ugly want of desires; which is never ending. It is definitely okay to aim higher and dream something bigger and better but once you have achieved your goal, you need to learn to be satisfied at that point of time rather than starting to aim something bigger than what you have accomplished. The moment you start appreciating yourself to that level; you have achieved a level of moksha; a mukti from greed of desires and ego towards others.

Well sometimes, we donot get what we want or what we had dreamt of; we feel disappointed over ourselves for not being able to do something for oneself. At such situation, the ability to bring yourself out of that grief and dissatisfaction is another level of moksha that we one can achieve. It’s because if you didn’t get what you wanted, means that was never meant to be yours no matter how hard you strive for that. If it was, you would have or will definitely achieve that when right time arrives.

To accept this reality and move ahead in your life simply and normally is another level of mukti. But always remember, to have expectations and hopes to get that particular thing or be with particular person you always wanted will ruin your pathway to the destination of moksha. Because one must get rid of false expectations and hopes to head nearer towards attaining Moksha/ Nirvana. This means, in the process of achieving moksha, one loses focus on the ego and desires and is able to focus on his/her own divine self and feel that union within your body and soul; the energy of inclusiveness .

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Another way to gain moksha while we are living is to focus on achieving self- control. We have so many compulsions in our life. (Here compulsion means something that is ruling over you; gadgets, any person, your own thoughts, situations etc.) Some people multiply their compulsions while some others subtract it and bring it to minimum. The only thing that we need to do is get rid of those compulsions in order to have control over oneself; in terms of emotions, thoughts, actions etc.

First of all, liberate yourself from present compulsions, continue doing it and at some point there will be no compulsions left. Infact, you will be the one ruling them which makes the liberation longing. However, we donot have choice to decide whether we want to be free or not. Because in the name of freedom, some people drink a lot, some take drugs, while some others jump over the mountains and smash themselves. People have been doing these things in the name of freedom which are actually the result of unconscious activities performed with the intention to attain liberation which is not possible at any cost.

Practicing Tapas is another way.

It is the practice of self –discipline which is often known as a key to attain Moksha. It includes spending some alone time, living a simple life and focusing on staying calm and detached from the materialistic world around you, practicing fasting, yoga etc.

Here,’ Yoga’ is not to be mistaken with just stretching different parts of body and holding certain postures. Yoga means ‘union’. Practicing yoga implies practicing the inclusiveness of your physical body and soul because everything in this universe is one energy (even E=mc verifies it) and energy is always inclusive, there’s nothing you can separate from one another.

When we talk about Moksha, we must consider Karma on the other side. Karma is defined as; never to act with desires following the actions. Anyone who follows the path of’ karma’ in ‘Kali Yuga’ will achieve happiness and freedom from misery. And karma always returns back at right times. However, Moksha is resolution and resolution means better comeback; not coming back.

You know, out of seasons, things don’t bloom. And Moksha doesn’t come from ‘dharma’. Not at all. Religion (dharma) originates where there is doer–ship. Moksha (ultimate liberation) originates when there is understanding.

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Another way to gain moksha while you are still alive is to get rid of ignorance; ignorance from the loved ones, from situations, from own thoughts or from any individuals. Once you stop feeling disappointed about facing ignorance and still run your daily life normally as it previously was while you gained proper attention, you have achieved a next level of moksha. Because Moksha is the realization of truth. Just like stars can’t shine without darkness, humans also need to go through some dark phases in life to become enlightened.

And another thing is that, one must learn to get rid of worries.; worrying about problems. Because problems are just the illusions of mind. The day you stop overthinking about the same issue time and again and start living in the present moment, feeling the sensation of life running within yourself; you have already reached another level of moksha.

If you have realized it or not, you never have to face any problems when you are fully aware about the present. You face problems when you keep worrying about either your past or future. Not realizing the fact that your past is already gone, you donot need that anymore. Your future still is yet to come and is very unpredictable. All you have is now; it’s in your hand and it is the biggest gift , maybe that is why it is called present. No problems ever occurred in your past, your past was yesterday’s today. And your future is tommorow’s today. So, it is all about ‘today’. Live it to the fullest without worrying about greed, jealousy, unfulfilled desires, ego, false hopes, expectations and ignorance. Switch off all these and switch on your divinity. There’s nothing beyond our existence.

Reincarnation or rebirth is just a matter of questioning the nature of your existence. When you talk about reincarnation, you are basically doubting if there was something before your birth or will there exist something after your death; which seems completely out of logic and is no way related to attaining moksha. Death is definitely the ultimate way to gain moksha but earning moksha while you are alive is something that can get victory over the power of death. Indeed, it will not be easy, but it is WORTH it !