SOME THOUGHTS ON MOKSHA------1

[Guest guest]

Friends,

By Moksha we mean Spiritual freedom. The destruction of ignorance ie., spiritual blindness which is the knot of the heart(Hridayagranthi) is known as Moksha. The Bhagavad Gita declares, "To the knowers of the Atman, there is Brahmanirvanam, spiritual freedom in its absolute form, wherever they may be(Abhito brahmanirvanam vartate viditatmanam). Physically and socially, man is not free; he is conditioned by external and internal factors. "Freedom is our spiritual nature. That is our true nature, immortal and divine, and we must realize it in life. This alone is true progress, development and this alone is true religion" says Swamy Vivekananda. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa lived this great idea. " Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the

Upanishads", says Swamy Vivekananda. The sages of the Upanishads, Lord Krishna, Buddha, Sankaracharya and a galaxy of spiritual masters including Ramakrishna Paramahamsa , Vivekananda and Bagavan Ramanamaharishi in the recent past are explorers, experimenters, and compassionate teachers of man in spiritual field. They are teachers of freedom--- freedom from all bonds of nature, external or internal. They have taught humanity as to how to fulfill ourself through Self-Realization. They saw freedom as the watchword of the cosmic process and the evolutionary drama; the spirit ever struggling to be free from the tentacles of matter, by transcending it. Human being is the only creature who is aware of itself and the vast energies within it. At the same time, man is aware of his sense of limitation within himself. He tries to overcome the

limitation and thus there is a conflict between the sense of bondage and the sense of freedom, which, of course, is not eternal. Under the guidance of a true Spiritual Master, man gains in spiritual strength and eventually achieves true freedom and bliss through realization of his spiritual nature. Freedom is man`s birthright, and he now regains it after passing through the long travails of the evolutionary process.

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian