The Myth of Moksha

All religions of the world, without exception, are based on the concept of deliverance from suffering. Human beings, no matter how rich or poor, go through varied experiences in their lives, some of which are good and some bad. The bad experiences lead to suffering, and create a stronger impression on the mind than the good experiences. And since there does not seem to be a way to get rid of suffering in this earthly life, the human mind starts looking for it in the heavens above. The first stage in this striving is to imagine an eternal heaven with unending pleasures that one can get access to after death of the body, if one belongs to a certain group or does certain good actions as per wishes of the heaven's gatekeeper called God. After some more evolution, the human mind realises the fallacy of this desire, and understands that no such pleasures, earthly or heavenly, can be eternal and so after a certain period, a return to earthly life of mixed pleasure and pain is inevitable. But this answer also does not satisfy the human mind, and so it goes on to construct or accept the concept of "Moksha" where one goes beyond both pleasure as well as pain permanently through dissolution of the "soul" or subtle body comprising of the prana and manas. There are elaborate texts of Vedanta and Yoga written to help human beings in progressing on this path and finally achieving the goal of Moksha or ultimate freedom/liberation, through a sustained effort over many lifetimes. But is Moksha an achievable goal, or is it just another myth constructed by the human mind? More importantly, do the Vedantic scriptures clearly support this idea of Moksha?

The concept of Moksha is deeply tied to the concept of rebirth, which says that there is an entity called the soul or jiva, which goes through repeated cycles of births and deaths. The manifestations of various jivas on this earth look different, but at the fundamental level all jivas are the same, except for a special one called Ishwara or God. In Yoga Sutra I.24, Patajali says:

क्लेशकर्मविपाकाशयैरपरामृष्टः पुरुषविशेष ईश्वरः || PYS I.24 ||

Ishwara is a special soul. He is untouched by the obstacles to the practices of yoga, karma, the fructification of karma and subconscious predispositions.

And in Bhagavad Gita IV.7, Krishna says:

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।

अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम् || Gita IV.7 ||

Whenever there is decline of righteousness, O Arjuna,

and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself.

Krishna is considered to be an Avatar, and so is a manifestation of God on this earth. So clearly, there is no liberation or freedom for God from the cycle of birth and death. And this is not our opinion, but God himself saying so. In relatively recent times, we have had Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar also support the same view of an Avatar taking birth again and again on earth to fulfil certain divine purpose.  

Now, when God himself is not free from the cycles of birth and death, how can we be free from it? Let us see this from another perspective. From a Vedantic perspective, what we call a human being essentially  consists of three components, one is the physical body, one is the subtle mind and third is the Atman. The Atman is always free, and the physical body is created and destroyed with time. So this whole idea of suffering and liberation essentially pertains to the mind, which does not die when the physical body dies. The mind is essentially a collection of our experiences gathered during the human life, and exists in some subtle form which cannot be defined or explained using human language. There is also no physical instrument which can measure or detect the mind, since it is a purely subjective entity only accessible through personal experience. I can experience my own mind, but not yours. But where does my mind stop and where does your start? Is there a clear boundary between our minds? Clear boundaries do not exist even in the physical domain, and they become all the more porous as we go deeper. My experiences and desires do not remain confined within my mind, but get mixed up to some extent with those of others. The idea of individuality that we carry during our earthly lives is actually quite fluid and malleable. Sri Aurobindo talks about it quite elaborately in his book called The Psychic Being.

So what happens after the death of the physical body is continuation of the experiences in a subtle form, and these experiences again get manifested in another body as time goes on. However, these experiences can get mixed up from various sources, and when they manifest in a new body, there is no clear continuity of an individual from a previous birth. These experiences along with the genetic material inherited from parents shape an individual who grows up to gather newer experiences in a new life. This human life on earth again comes to an end releasing its experiences for again getting mixed up with others and manifesting again in another body. Of course, the new body could be that of an animal or even a plant, or perhaps even a bacteria, depending on the kind of experiences that wish to group together and manifest again on earth. Now these individual experiences do dissolve away with time since everything that had a beginning must have an end. But each experience, emotion and feeling has its own journey through space and time. 

So if there is no such thing as final liberation or Moksha, what is the goal of human life? How do we deal with suffering if there is no promised liberation in the future? The best answer is perhaps provided by the greatest scholar India has ever produced:

भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं

गोविन्दं भज मूढमते ।

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda,

Worship Govinda, oh deluded mind!

Of course, the author of these beautiful lines, Adi Sankaracharya, has also elaborately spoken about Moksha as have other eminent Vedantic teachers. Are they all wrong? It is important to understand that a spiritual Guru's main job is to motivate his/her pupils to follow the righteous path, and concepts like Moksha are helpful in that context. Vivekananda, one of the most revered spiritual teachers of modern times,  has also said several things which are perhaps not fully true but acted as great motivators for people during those times. Does not a mother tell stories to her child to make it have food at the right time? Many of these spiritual concepts are like stories that Gurus tell to motivate us. As long as we understand the context of these stories and use them for our spiritual growth, it works fine. But the moment we get too attached to these stories, we lose touch with reality and end up deeper in the whirlpool that we were trying to get rid off in the first place!