In Indian Philosophy liberation means complete cessation of sufferings. The concept of liberation entails someone’s state of bondage and anticipates the possibility of his
or her release into a state of freedom. It is perhaps the biggest idea in man’s quest of happiness.
There is a continuous struggle of human beings for their existence like all other conscious beings. While the struggle for the lower beings (who approach life blindly without any conscious plan and purpose) is more, the Superior beings ( who use their intellect to understand the conditions and meaning of life, device plans) are motivated by instinct, and hence are closer to succeed in their lives. Human life in the worldly state is incomplete, broken and points beyond itself. It has a goal to achieve, purpose to fulfil and an end to release.
The present article discusses the concept of liberation in detail, based on Indian Philosophy. This topic becomes important from the GS Paper 4 of UPSC Mains point of view. To know the syllabus please click the given link. Know how to prepare for GS Paper 4- Ethics and Integrity here.
Concept of Liberation Based On Indian Philosophy
The end of life is within life. Our soul is always free from worldly sufferings. It is when we are unable to keep our ego or body separate from our soul, the sufferings affecting the ego also wrongly affect the soul. Therefore, it is always a man of realisation who becomes free.
Indian philosophical systems have been divided into two classes namely, the āstika and the nāstika. The nāstika views are those, which neither regard the Vedas as infallible nor try to establish their own validity of their authority. These principles are three in number namely Cārvāka, Jains and the Buddhist. Each of this system has given their concepts about the attainment of Liberation. In Veda and Upanishads, liberation is the result of knowledge (jñāna). By real knowledge one gets liberation. This knowledge is based on experience and is beyond intellectual knowledge. It is determined by space, time or causality. Thus, it is only by the achievement of knowledge that one gets liberation and freedom from all miseries.
Indian philosophical systems accept the four ends of human activity namely: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma includes virtuous, proper, moral life; Artha includes material prosperity, income security, means of life; Kama includes pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfilment and Moksha means liberation. Together, these four aims of life are called Puruṣartha in Hinduism.
Cārvāka also known as Lokayata come to materialistic conception of liberation. They rejected Artha and Moksha, of the four purushartha. According to this school of thought, Death is the only way to obtain liberation as understood in the sense of destruction of all sufferings. So if death is the ultimate end to achieve liberation no wise man would be willing to work for that end. Therefore, this school believes that distinction between virtue and vice as described by the scriptures cannot be rationally accepted. In that case liberation is neither a virtue nor a vice. Hence, according to them, Wealth and enjoyment are the only rational ends that a wise man can work hard to achieve. They considered pleasure as the highest goal of life. So, Cārvāka says that attainment of maximum amount of pleasure in life and avoiding pain as far as possible are the only highest goals, i.e ‘Rather a pigeon today than a peacock tomorrow’.
Moksha is the central concept in the Hindu Philosophy. To some liberation or moksha means cessation of births and rebirths and the only means of liberation is to obtain knowledge. To Ramanuj Vishishtadvait, Moksha means fellowship with God. According to him, Bhakti towards God should be practised continuously along with complete self-surrender before Him (prapatti). So he says it is the man who surrenders himself completely to God is truly the one who is set free from bondage and misery of life. Such a man gains an immediate knowledge (darshana) of God. This is the final means to liberation.
In Jainism, moksha is the highest and the noblest objective that a soul should strive to achieve. In Jain Philosophy Moksha means salvation of a soul from saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death. They say Karma binds the soul to the body. Ignorance of truth and four passions anger (krodha), greed (lobha), pride (mana) and delusion (maya) which are called Kasaya leads the soul to bandhan or bondage. It is only through possession and practice of right faith, knowledge and conduct the influx of fresh karma is stopped. This state is called Samvara or stoppage. It is a blissful state of existence of a soul, attained after the destruction of all karmic bonds. It is this liberated soul which is pure, pristine and attains true knowledge and infinite perception. Such a soul is called siddha and is revered in Jainism.
In the Buddhist Philosophical system Nirvāna is the ultimate end, which is liberation. Nirvāna means extinction of the self. It also means the extinguishing of fires of passion which include jealousy, anger, doubt and impurities of the mind. After this state of complete bliss and complete calm the man is lifted from the cycle of rebirth.
Similarly in yoga darshan, it is defined as samadhi. According to Shankaracharya, it is man falling back to the universal soul, merger, the loss of Identity and Egoism. Sankhya, like Jain Philosophy believes in the theory of Kaivalya, the only difference is that Purush is real. In Bhagavad Gita, there are three paths that lead to Moksha: the path of knowledge ( Jjnanyog), the path of nishkama karma & the path of grace (Bhakti Yoga).
Conclusion
So, after going through the meaning of liberation based on various schools of thoughts of Indian Philosophy it is evident that all recognise Moksha or liberation as the salvation from the cycle of rebirths and considers the highest of human ends or values. Each Indian philosophy prescribed a unique way through which one can emancipate oneself and move towards attaining the highest goal of life. Liberation is nothing but a state of selfless love, service to others, purification and self-control.
All the Indian philosophical systems, except Cārvāka, refused to be satisfied by anything less than liberation. It is true that the Indian philosophical systems differ among themselves in ways of achieving Moksha, but one thing is common that they all agree that liberation is freedom from all kinds of pains and cessation of the cycle of birth and death. All of them stress on the same thing that liberation is the realisation of the truth from within, not something brought from anywhere outside. They all agree that the cause of bondage can be removed and the soul can be made liberated. If it is liberated once, there is no possibility of its bondage again. Hence, the ultimate aim of human life is to obtain liberation.
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