Mokṣa — liberation

मोक्ष

Also written: moksha · mukti · liberation hinduism · nirvana moksha · jivanmukti · मोक्ष

Mokṣa is the fourth and final aim — the one for which the other three are preparation. The word means release: from saṁsāra, the cycle of repeated becoming, and from the fundamental misidentification that keeps it turning.

Not a place, not a reward

The Upaniṣads are careful about this. Whatever is attained can be lost; whatever is produced has an end. If liberation were something acquired, it would be temporary. So it is described instead as the ending of ignorance about what was always the case — the way a man who has been searching for the necklace already around his neck does not gain a necklace when he is told.

The four paths

Yoga	For the temperament that is	Method
Jñāna	Reflective, analytical	Discrimination between the Self and what is not the Self; enquiry into the knower
Bhakti	Emotional, relational	Love and self-offering to the Divine; the nine limbs of devotion
Karma	Active, outward	Action performed as offering, without claim on its fruit
Rāja	Introspective, disciplined	The eight limbs of Patañjali; the stilling of the modifications of mind

Jīvanmukti — liberated while alive

The tradition's most distinctive claim: liberation is not posthumous. One who has seen through the error is free now, while eating, walking and conducting the ordinary business of a life. The Gītā's description of the sthitaprajña in chapter two is a portrait of such a person — undisturbed in sorrow, unexcited in pleasure, without craving, fear or anger, moving among sense objects as a river receives water without overflowing.

आपूर्यमाणमचलप्रतिष्ठं समुद्रमापः प्रविशन्ति यद्वत्। तद्वत्कामा यं प्रविशन्ति सर्वे स शान्तिमाप्नोति न कामकामी॥

āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭhaṁ samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve sa śāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī

As waters enter the ocean, which is ever filled yet unmoved — so one whom all desires enter attains peace, and not one who desires desires.

— Bhagavad Gītā 2.70

The schools disagree, openly

School	Mokṣa is
Advaita Vedānta	Recognition of the identity of Self and Brahman; the jīva was never separate
Viśiṣṭādvaita	Eternal service and communion in Vaikuṇṭha; the soul remains distinct but inseparable
Dvaita	Eternal enjoyment of God's presence, in a graded order; difference is permanent
Sāṅkhya	Kaivalya — the isolation of puruṣa from prakṛti; no deity involved
Yoga	Kaivalya, reached by the stilling of the mind
Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika	Cessation of pain by the ending of the connection between self and body
Kashmir Śaivism	Pratyabhijñā — recognition that one was always Śiva; the world is not denied but seen as His play

Mokṣa — liberation

Not a place, not a reward

The four paths

Jīvanmukti — liberated while alive

The schools disagree, openly

The four Puruṣārthas — what a human life is for

Dharma as the first aim

Artha — wealth, means and capability

Kāma — desire, beauty and delight

The four Āśramas — one life, four dharmas

Brahmacarya — the student stage