All endeavours aim at the common ideal of
the perpetual abolition of sorrow and the experience of unending bliss. Bliss
is only in the Infinite and sorrow is only in the finite. There is no bliss in
the finite, and no sorrow in the Infinite. Therefore, the attainment of the
Infinite Life is the supreme purpose of finite life. Knowledge and meditation
have both their dear aim in the realisation of the Absolute.
Moksha is the highest exaltation of
the self in its pristine nature of supreme perfection. Emancipation is the
Consciousness of the Reality; not becoming something which previously did not
exist, not travelling to another world of greater joy. It is the knowledge of
eternal existence, the awareness of the essential nature of Pure Being. It is
the Freedom attained by knowing that we are always free.
Knowledge is not merely the cause for
freedom; it is itself freedom. Moksha consists in jnana (Knowledge)
and is not the effect or product of jnana. Jnana is Existence
itself, and hence it cannot be a means to attain jnana of Existence,
which is moksha, as a thing does not attain itself. Chit is the
same as sat. To be what is, is moksha. It is to
realise one’s Self, to be Oneself, and to be Oneself is to be the All.
Swami Krishnananda |