The Concept of Liberation

The aim of Advaita Vedānta is Liberation by knowledge of the identity of Ātman and Brahman. Advaitins believe that suffering is due to Māyā. Only knowledge of Brahman can destroy Māyā. At the relative plane jīva and īśvara are regarded as different from and of a lower order of reality than the original consciousness that is the absolute real Brahman. When Māyā is removed, the truth of “brahmasatyaṃ jaganmithyā jīvo brahmaiva nā paraḥ” is realised. Brahman alone is real, this world is unreal. The jīva or the individual soul is non-different from Brahman. The only way to liberation is practice of Yoga, especially jñānayoga is needed to destroy ignorance. One must be tended to the path of jñānayoga before the real insight can be attained.

According to Mahābhārata the people who believe in the formality acts and sacrificial rites as prescribed in the Vedas are delighted after receiving the merits accruing to them. In the same way the wise, who believe in knowledge, do not like anything other than knowledge. The seers who are very intelligent, who know both the paths of action and knowledge, prefer the path of bondage, as it is better than the path of action. Here, the preceptor therefore, states that one who wishes to be released from the bodily ties should strive for release. He therefore advises that a man desirous of getting release should perform his action without expectation.^[1] In the same parva Manu declares in the same lines that salvation can be gained through abandonment of material acts. The Mahābhārata teaches that one should control one’s own desires like a tortoise drawing back its limbs. Once this is done the Ātman enlightens his heart like the sun.

The Mahābhārata has explained that the release of the soul. The one, who is devoted to the supreme spirit, knows him in essence through devotion and goes to that eternal state by his favour and attains that supreme state, from which one never returns. It is the immediate release. However there is a reference of “Supreme abode from which there is no return.^[2] Also there is a remark of devotee entering in to Him,” that is absorption of the devotee in to the deity. It is called release. This release is the result of union with the supreme. The Mahābhārata says that due to the sin performed by the man, he does not get release. Once the sins are destroyed, he attains release. Many ways are discussed in the Mahābhārata to gain Liberation. Man can attain emancipation with the help of sympathy, patience, calmness, non-violence, truth, and straight forwardness, non-injury, absence of pride, modesty, forbearance and tranquillity.

The system of Advaita Vedānta has strengthened its unequalled position in half of the sphere of philosophical thinking even in the midst of modern trends due to its veracity of oratory and piercing nature in to the unfamiliar realms of human life. Its exclusive epistemological and metaphysical arrangements along with radical re-orientation in to the reality and meaning of human birth have helped it rise as without equal proposals in the domain of philosophy forever.

The entire thirst of the discipline of Advaita Vedānta is towards devising ways and means to the perspective necessity of postulating the reality other than that which could be taken hold of through one’s experience in the empirical world. The Advaita Vedānta contribution made by the followers of Śaṅkara is also fabulous to a great extent. The fundamental concept of Reality in Advaita Vedānta as a unique “oneness” is nearing to acquiescence in the scientific community apart from all aspects of advancements. As the term Vedānta means the end portion of the Vedas, the conclusive and specific aim of the entire Vedic culture is exposed in Upaniṣads that form the literary portions of Vedas.

The Mbh.teaches that when one sees creatures of boundless multiformity to be all one and the same and to be but diversified, originating from the same essence, one is said to have attained the Brahman. Those who reach that state achieve that supreme and blissful end. Indeed everything rests on undertaking. The details are in full concord with the Vedāntic concept or release. This showes that the Mahābhārata has adopted the Vedāntic philosophical views regarding the characteristics of the persons whose soul is liberated. The great sage Vyāsa says, one who perceives the Highest Lord everywhere attains Liberation and is not reborn. The Mahābhārata explained that when the jīvātman knows the supreme Lord dwelling equally in all beings, never vanishing when they perish, he really knows, for as he sees the Lord present equally everywhere, he does not damage his true self by the self and then attains the supreme goal. The Śāntiparva discussed that a person, who can observe the invisible supreme self who resides in all the beings, attains the state of the Brahman and unending existence after having left this world. According to Mahābhārata a yogin who meditates on the Brahman at the highest that is Puruṣa. These people are destitute of desire and observe celibacy. Other beings follow the cycle of birth and death. Thus the Mahābhārata sustaines the two paths one of complete release and the other of rebirth.

Mahābhārata explains that a man’s rival is desire. The senses, mind and intellect constitute its base. By these it is not distinct knowledge and misleads the embodied soul. Hence, one should check the senses first and cast off the sin that destroys both knowledge and experience. It further emphasizes that the senses are high, higher than them is the mind and the intellect is higher than the mind. But he is higher than the intellect.

According to Mahābhārata the highest authority or power of the Ātman that rules over the mind, intellect and the senses etc. it is the Ātman alone who can control the wandering senses. The Ātman, the embodied Self when perplexed loses the control over the senses. Yet ultimately it is the Ātman himself who has to group with himself and control the senses which carry him away from the ultimate goal. Thus with the help of the mind, which is the receptacle of knowledge and the intellect, which has been assigned the discriminative function. The Ātman has to undertake the act of controlling. The intellect and the mind are only tools in the hands of the soul, the Ātman. The true knowledge lies within the self, which is part and parcel of the all embracing self from which it shrinks its inspiration. These perceptions show that there is a strong influence of the Vedānta Philosophy on the philosophical trends reflected in the Mahābhārata The Mahābhārata has united the Advaita doctrine of the Upaniṣads and the concept of unending existence or salvation to be gained through the highest knowledge as the ultimate goal.

Knowing from the textual analysis all the important points of Sāṃkhya Philosophy, the Sāṃkhya thoughts in the Śāntiparva of Mahābhārata is dealt in detail. The Sāṃkhya Philosophy and thoughts are mostly found in the Mokṣadharma parva of Mahābhārata

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Śāntiparva , 212, 1-5

[2]:

yadgatvā na nivartante taddhāma paramaṃ mama | Bhīṣmaparva 37-6