ராதே கிருஷ்ணா 13-09-2015
What is Moksha?
Moksha is a hard-to-comprehend-state from this side of the world. Nonetheless, the state of Moksha illustrated by Sri Madhvacharya is the most honest and as-is description completely based on evidences in Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas further supported with reasoning. Furthermore this is the only view of Moksha that is consistent with the entire corpus of scriptures and the most-honest and factual view ever laid out.
Why are we bound?
We all realize we are bound. But why?
A soul eligible for moksha intrinsically has the attributes of knowledge and bliss among many other things. Just like a mango seed intrinsically having the capability to produce a sweet fruit. However the soul has been covered by 6-7 envelopes, material desires and karma being two important ones. All these totally mislead the soul from realizing its expression of intrinsic attributes. Like a dust-laden mirror failing to express (reflect) the subject.
So, naturally it turns out that one has to workd towards eliminating this envelopes unnatural to the soul in the first place.
Moksha in a nutshell
The dvaita view of Moksha is thus two fold
1. Getting rid of all the envelopes that are un-natural to the soul causing the bondage and sorrow (आत्यंतिकदुःखनिवृत्ति)
2. Fullest Expression of intrinsic bliss (परमानंदावाप्ति)
All the tasks mandated such as studying the scriptures, injunctions-prohibitions (vidhi-nishedha), rituals etc are towards the single goal of developing a real devotion towards God driven by knowledge and not temporary emotions of the mind. Such devotion gets rid of the envelopes (mentioned earlier) with his grace and results in the full expression of internal bliss.
The bliss talked about in Moksha is aprAkRuta (अप्राकृत) i.e. it has no connection to the bliss of the material world arrived at by sensual pleasures of body and mind. But there is lack of terminology in our material languages to describe this literally out-of-the-world bliss. One could roughly correlate Moksha with some examples
• Our state of mind achieved at the height of devotion, like still-water in a pond, unperturbed, calm and thoroughly enjoyable but totally indescribable.
• The feeling of satisfaction in deep sleep when we are free of all thoughts – good and bad, lack of material pain and pleasure, yet a state of pleasure in a non-material way
These are crude examples but they drive home the point that such bliss is not a result of bodily-mental enjoyment. Instead it is arrived at by connecting ourselves with Vishnu (even though at mental level in meditation and with praajna-rupi Vishnu in deep sleep).
Such Vishnu, the giver of bliss is present inside the soul itself! It is our bimba rupa. Our very own personal form of God. It is the constant sight of that indwelling Vishnu that gives the bliss to the soul and has made bliss its intrinsic quality in the first place!
The soul does various sadhanas while in this world to express his devotion to Vishnu. Devotion while in this world is a means to reach the end (i.e. Moksha), is not lost after reaching the end. Devotion remains the prime factor with which the soul continues to derive his bliss.
What does a liberated soul do?
Moksha is not a yawning void. It is full of activities.
While no one is forced to do anything, the intrinsic drive of every liberated soul engages it in activities. Important thing to note is that this drive is not rajasic and not even originating form triguna – which the liberated soul doesn’t have. The nature of such activities is different from material world. In this world, a vast majority of activities are done to get pleasure and thus may be some sensual bliss. I.e. Activity gives bliss. Whereas it is the converse in moksha. Bliss results in activity. The activities are done because the soul is in the state of bliss. A crude example of such activity in this world is the bursting of crackers when Indian cricket team wins against Pakistan. The entity performing the activity is already in a state of bliss. The bursting of cracker is only a expression of that bliss (of having won against Pakistan cricket team). Similar is the activity of a liberated soul.
Another key difference between us and the liberated soul is: We have to remind ourselves that all our activities are worship of Vishnu. Whereas the liberated souls do their activity in such a fashion naturally. In addition they may worship Vishnu when they feel like it. And also voluntarily respect their superiors in moksha.
One more key difference between activities here and in moksha is that : Here in this world, we have to put some effort to do a task. Whereas in moksha, the will of the soul itself is enough to manifest the desire of that soul. And this will of the soul is completely coherent with the will of the Lord all the time. Thus the satya-sankalpa Lord makes the liberated souls satya-sankalpa too. If a mukta-atma desires a mango, the tree appears before him and delivers the fruit!
A few questions arise here naturally
1. Why does a liberated soul have a desire? (Popular view of Moksha is a desireless state)
2. What is the nature of desire?
3. How is a tangible thing (such as a mango) delivered to liberated soul by a tree?
4. Where did the tree come in Vaikunta?
5. How does a liberated soul (devoid of any body)enjoy the mango?
Answers
1. Moksha is not a desireless state for a soul. However the desire is not a result of mental thought process (antahkaraNa-vikAra) and/or prarabda and/or environment. The desire is intrinsic and not on a material plane. The driver of such activities and enjoyment is the bliss. The liberated souls view God in each of these activities. Like we do bhajan, they may indulge in singing while in moksha.
2. A soul is aprAkruta. When it has intrinsic desire for anything, it adorns a shuddha-satva body on the fly towards that and then gives up such body later. Trees, Insects and all kinds of organisms exist in Vaikunta. Not just humans. Like humans, they too were muktiyogya souls once upon a time and have gotten liberated. They too worship Lord, but in their own limited fashion. A tree is instantaneously aware of a soul desirous of eating its fruit. And it transports itself to the location of soul (although physical location for a aprAkruta entity is meaningless. But we have to map it mentally ourselves). Both the tree and soul adorn shuddha-satvika deha. The soul in bliss enjoys the fruit and sees God in it again. The tree thinks of its fruit delivery as a service to God. Both then again drop their shuddha satva deha to return to their aprAkruta form and continue in their blissful state in the ever-vision of respective bimba-rupi Vishnu.
While the above explanations cannot be taken literally mapped to our material plane, they are probably the best mapping of aprAkruta plane world of Moksha to the material plane of ours. At the same time, these cannot be dismissed as rubbish fancies either. Because the description of moksha in Vedas enables us to visualize this picture drawn out above, albeit hazily.
The goal of the above description is to realize that moksha is not a lazy world with nothing to do and souls doing time-pass. Instead the means (devotion) that enabled them to reach it continues to be the key driver with its 100% presence all the time in souls making it see Vishnu continuously. This also makes it free from any sorrow in Moksha.
It isn't a silent world with no communication between souls either. As soon as a soul desires to communicate with another soul (located anywhere), the desire is instantly met and the communication happens in their plane. Which of course is totally beyond us.
The list of tasks that can be performed by a liberated soul in moksha is rather long. Vedas describe it well. Here is a sample
1. Sometimes they praise Vishnu by reciting Vedas or perform Yajnas
2. Sometimes they traverse the universe at will
3. Sometimes they dance, sing, play musical instruments
4. Sometimes they express their delight through words
5. Sometimes they drive chariots and horses
6. Sometimes they think of the bonded world they once lived in and feel thankful
7. Sometimes they visit their ancestors and feel happy
8. Sometimes male and female souls unite and indulge in sexual activity. (Yes soul has gender in Dvaita. And it is as per Upanishads itself. The intrinsic gender may however not be manifested as it is in us).
9. And sometimes they see, hear etc. through Vishnu's eyes and ears (Again the concept of soul having eyes and ears and body is hard to imagine. But the vedas emphasize that this is all aprAkruta. Just like how Vishnu – the ever liberated supersoul has eyes ears, hands and legs. And those are not symbolic at all. They have a real existence in the aprAkruta plane as stressed by the scriptures. It is just that we cannot relate to that. That doesn’t however mean they don’t exist)
It is worthwhile recalling that all these activities performed by liberated souls in moksha are done while already in a state of bliss and such activities and enjoyments such as sexual union do not add to the bliss of the liberated souls
Sounds bizzarre and fanciful!!
But at the same time they are straight from the scriptural cannon. [Advaita will have a tough time ruling out all these description as mithya as it is a description of moksha which is pAramArthika satya- even from advaitis standpoint from the same Vedas and upanishats they too rely upon.]
In addition to the details above (sourced from mostly Chandogya Upanishat, Bruhadaranyaka and Rigveda) All these enjoyment along with Vishnu, Chaturmukha in moksha is decisively stated in one line in Taittiriya Upanishat
यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन सोश्नुते सर्वान कामान सह ब्रह्मणा सह विपश्चित इति ॥
Gradation in bliss
There is clear gradation in bliss. This gradation is based on the inherent gradation of the soul. Even in material world we see, a good seed yields good harvest and a not-so-good-one yields decenrt harvest. There is no forced communist-style equality in God's world. We are what we are and get the bliss according to our capacity, eligibilty and grade in the hierarchy. A clerk may desire the salary of a director, but he/she will not get it. Interestingly however in moksha, a lower soul doesn’t even desire a higher level of bliss. This is given the fact that our intrinsic bliss is metaphorically stored in a container. It can store only until it is full and full we are in moksha. Then where to store additional bliss?? !!
A sea is full. A river is full. So is a tumbler. Any more bliss in the tumbler than it can hold (and thus enjoy) is not going to happen. Thus there exists gradation in souls. Such gradation is real, natural and exists in this world and also when we move to moksha. Taittiriya Upanishat clearly proclaims this gradation in bliss between various devatas. And of course the bliss of God is said to be unimaginable by the even highest souls, including the ever-liberated Lakshmi.
Types of Moksha
There are four kinds of Moksha – Saalokya, Saarupya, Saamipya and Saayujya in the ascending order of their nature.
1. A soul with saalokya moksha gets to reside in the same loka as Vishnu. That’s about it. It gets its intrinsic bliss as usual. It also gets to be with and see its own bimba rupa. But the additional bliss that it would have otherwise got by being close to the mularupi Vishnu is not there. But that doesn’t cause grief to that liberated soul in any manner as said earlier in the gradation of bliss
2. A soul gets similar form like Vishnu with four arms and shanka-chakra-gadaa-padma.
3. Soul gets to reside in places like tridhama (Vaikunta, anantAsana, Shwetadwipa) and deriving more bliss by being closer to the mula rupi Vishnu
4. Soul of higher devatas gets sayujya i.e. they get to reside in the body parts of Vishnu from which they originated and can sometimes see, hear through Vishnu's respective organs (all aprAkruta) and be in the higher state of bliss ,atching their capability.
Moksha is a hard-to-comprehend-state from this side of the world. Nonetheless, the state of Moksha illustrated by Sri Madhvacharya is the most honest and as-is description completely based on evidences in Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas further supported with reasoning. Furthermore this is the only view of Moksha that is consistent with the entire corpus of scriptures and the most-honest and factual view ever laid out.
Why are we bound?
We all realize we are bound. But why?
A soul eligible for moksha intrinsically has the attributes of knowledge and bliss among many other things. Just like a mango seed intrinsically having the capability to produce a sweet fruit. However the soul has been covered by 6-7 envelopes, material desires and karma being two important ones. All these totally mislead the soul from realizing its expression of intrinsic attributes. Like a dust-laden mirror failing to express (reflect) the subject.
So, naturally it turns out that one has to workd towards eliminating this envelopes unnatural to the soul in the first place.
Moksha in a nutshell
The dvaita view of Moksha is thus two fold
1. Getting rid of all the envelopes that are un-natural to the soul causing the bondage and sorrow (आत्यंतिकदुःखनिवृत्ति)
2. Fullest Expression of intrinsic bliss (परमानंदावाप्ति)
All the tasks mandated such as studying the scriptures, injunctions-prohibitions (vidhi-nishedha), rituals etc are towards the single goal of developing a real devotion towards God driven by knowledge and not temporary emotions of the mind. Such devotion gets rid of the envelopes (mentioned earlier) with his grace and results in the full expression of internal bliss.
The bliss talked about in Moksha is aprAkRuta (अप्राकृत) i.e. it has no connection to the bliss of the material world arrived at by sensual pleasures of body and mind. But there is lack of terminology in our material languages to describe this literally out-of-the-world bliss. One could roughly correlate Moksha with some examples
• Our state of mind achieved at the height of devotion, like still-water in a pond, unperturbed, calm and thoroughly enjoyable but totally indescribable.
• The feeling of satisfaction in deep sleep when we are free of all thoughts – good and bad, lack of material pain and pleasure, yet a state of pleasure in a non-material way
These are crude examples but they drive home the point that such bliss is not a result of bodily-mental enjoyment. Instead it is arrived at by connecting ourselves with Vishnu (even though at mental level in meditation and with praajna-rupi Vishnu in deep sleep).
Such Vishnu, the giver of bliss is present inside the soul itself! It is our bimba rupa. Our very own personal form of God. It is the constant sight of that indwelling Vishnu that gives the bliss to the soul and has made bliss its intrinsic quality in the first place!
The soul does various sadhanas while in this world to express his devotion to Vishnu. Devotion while in this world is a means to reach the end (i.e. Moksha), is not lost after reaching the end. Devotion remains the prime factor with which the soul continues to derive his bliss.
What does a liberated soul do?
Moksha is not a yawning void. It is full of activities.
While no one is forced to do anything, the intrinsic drive of every liberated soul engages it in activities. Important thing to note is that this drive is not rajasic and not even originating form triguna – which the liberated soul doesn’t have. The nature of such activities is different from material world. In this world, a vast majority of activities are done to get pleasure and thus may be some sensual bliss. I.e. Activity gives bliss. Whereas it is the converse in moksha. Bliss results in activity. The activities are done because the soul is in the state of bliss. A crude example of such activity in this world is the bursting of crackers when Indian cricket team wins against Pakistan. The entity performing the activity is already in a state of bliss. The bursting of cracker is only a expression of that bliss (of having won against Pakistan cricket team). Similar is the activity of a liberated soul.
Another key difference between us and the liberated soul is: We have to remind ourselves that all our activities are worship of Vishnu. Whereas the liberated souls do their activity in such a fashion naturally. In addition they may worship Vishnu when they feel like it. And also voluntarily respect their superiors in moksha.
One more key difference between activities here and in moksha is that : Here in this world, we have to put some effort to do a task. Whereas in moksha, the will of the soul itself is enough to manifest the desire of that soul. And this will of the soul is completely coherent with the will of the Lord all the time. Thus the satya-sankalpa Lord makes the liberated souls satya-sankalpa too. If a mukta-atma desires a mango, the tree appears before him and delivers the fruit!
A few questions arise here naturally
1. Why does a liberated soul have a desire? (Popular view of Moksha is a desireless state)
2. What is the nature of desire?
3. How is a tangible thing (such as a mango) delivered to liberated soul by a tree?
4. Where did the tree come in Vaikunta?
5. How does a liberated soul (devoid of any body)enjoy the mango?
Answers
1. Moksha is not a desireless state for a soul. However the desire is not a result of mental thought process (antahkaraNa-vikAra) and/or prarabda and/or environment. The desire is intrinsic and not on a material plane. The driver of such activities and enjoyment is the bliss. The liberated souls view God in each of these activities. Like we do bhajan, they may indulge in singing while in moksha.
2. A soul is aprAkruta. When it has intrinsic desire for anything, it adorns a shuddha-satva body on the fly towards that and then gives up such body later. Trees, Insects and all kinds of organisms exist in Vaikunta. Not just humans. Like humans, they too were muktiyogya souls once upon a time and have gotten liberated. They too worship Lord, but in their own limited fashion. A tree is instantaneously aware of a soul desirous of eating its fruit. And it transports itself to the location of soul (although physical location for a aprAkruta entity is meaningless. But we have to map it mentally ourselves). Both the tree and soul adorn shuddha-satvika deha. The soul in bliss enjoys the fruit and sees God in it again. The tree thinks of its fruit delivery as a service to God. Both then again drop their shuddha satva deha to return to their aprAkruta form and continue in their blissful state in the ever-vision of respective bimba-rupi Vishnu.
While the above explanations cannot be taken literally mapped to our material plane, they are probably the best mapping of aprAkruta plane world of Moksha to the material plane of ours. At the same time, these cannot be dismissed as rubbish fancies either. Because the description of moksha in Vedas enables us to visualize this picture drawn out above, albeit hazily.
The goal of the above description is to realize that moksha is not a lazy world with nothing to do and souls doing time-pass. Instead the means (devotion) that enabled them to reach it continues to be the key driver with its 100% presence all the time in souls making it see Vishnu continuously. This also makes it free from any sorrow in Moksha.
It isn't a silent world with no communication between souls either. As soon as a soul desires to communicate with another soul (located anywhere), the desire is instantly met and the communication happens in their plane. Which of course is totally beyond us.
The list of tasks that can be performed by a liberated soul in moksha is rather long. Vedas describe it well. Here is a sample
1. Sometimes they praise Vishnu by reciting Vedas or perform Yajnas
2. Sometimes they traverse the universe at will
3. Sometimes they dance, sing, play musical instruments
4. Sometimes they express their delight through words
5. Sometimes they drive chariots and horses
6. Sometimes they think of the bonded world they once lived in and feel thankful
7. Sometimes they visit their ancestors and feel happy
8. Sometimes male and female souls unite and indulge in sexual activity. (Yes soul has gender in Dvaita. And it is as per Upanishads itself. The intrinsic gender may however not be manifested as it is in us).
9. And sometimes they see, hear etc. through Vishnu's eyes and ears (Again the concept of soul having eyes and ears and body is hard to imagine. But the vedas emphasize that this is all aprAkruta. Just like how Vishnu – the ever liberated supersoul has eyes ears, hands and legs. And those are not symbolic at all. They have a real existence in the aprAkruta plane as stressed by the scriptures. It is just that we cannot relate to that. That doesn’t however mean they don’t exist)
It is worthwhile recalling that all these activities performed by liberated souls in moksha are done while already in a state of bliss and such activities and enjoyments such as sexual union do not add to the bliss of the liberated souls
Sounds bizzarre and fanciful!!
But at the same time they are straight from the scriptural cannon. [Advaita will have a tough time ruling out all these description as mithya as it is a description of moksha which is pAramArthika satya- even from advaitis standpoint from the same Vedas and upanishats they too rely upon.]
In addition to the details above (sourced from mostly Chandogya Upanishat, Bruhadaranyaka and Rigveda) All these enjoyment along with Vishnu, Chaturmukha in moksha is decisively stated in one line in Taittiriya Upanishat
यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन सोश्नुते सर्वान कामान सह ब्रह्मणा सह विपश्चित इति ॥
Gradation in bliss
There is clear gradation in bliss. This gradation is based on the inherent gradation of the soul. Even in material world we see, a good seed yields good harvest and a not-so-good-one yields decenrt harvest. There is no forced communist-style equality in God's world. We are what we are and get the bliss according to our capacity, eligibilty and grade in the hierarchy. A clerk may desire the salary of a director, but he/she will not get it. Interestingly however in moksha, a lower soul doesn’t even desire a higher level of bliss. This is given the fact that our intrinsic bliss is metaphorically stored in a container. It can store only until it is full and full we are in moksha. Then where to store additional bliss?? !!
A sea is full. A river is full. So is a tumbler. Any more bliss in the tumbler than it can hold (and thus enjoy) is not going to happen. Thus there exists gradation in souls. Such gradation is real, natural and exists in this world and also when we move to moksha. Taittiriya Upanishat clearly proclaims this gradation in bliss between various devatas. And of course the bliss of God is said to be unimaginable by the even highest souls, including the ever-liberated Lakshmi.
Types of Moksha
There are four kinds of Moksha – Saalokya, Saarupya, Saamipya and Saayujya in the ascending order of their nature.
1. A soul with saalokya moksha gets to reside in the same loka as Vishnu. That’s about it. It gets its intrinsic bliss as usual. It also gets to be with and see its own bimba rupa. But the additional bliss that it would have otherwise got by being close to the mularupi Vishnu is not there. But that doesn’t cause grief to that liberated soul in any manner as said earlier in the gradation of bliss
2. A soul gets similar form like Vishnu with four arms and shanka-chakra-gadaa-padma.
3. Soul gets to reside in places like tridhama (Vaikunta, anantAsana, Shwetadwipa) and deriving more bliss by being closer to the mula rupi Vishnu
4. Soul of higher devatas gets sayujya i.e. they get to reside in the body parts of Vishnu from which they originated and can sometimes see, hear through Vishnu's respective organs (all aprAkruta) and be in the higher state of bliss ,atching their capability.
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