SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

Moksa: the final goal

The goal of the Hindu is thus to lose the kind of karma which attaches itself to the egoistic self and to have no need to reincarnate. Then, the cycle of samsara 'over, the sages taught that one experiences the unity of all existence and becomes Brahman. This is sat, cit, and ananda (Truth or Being, Pure Consciousness and bliss). Like the ease by which we experience dreamless sleep, moksa does not have to be found; it is already there, like a treasure buried in one's own home. The Vedantic sages taught that through the path of knowledge, ascetic withdrawal from the world of the senses, and meditative practices, the evolution of the self could reach the point of realization of Brahman. To know Brahman one has to come to know the emptiness of the fulness of life and the fulness of that emptiness in the bliss of Brahman.      The Vedanta stands in sharp contrast to the previous Vedic period of which, really, it is a part. As a result of the more introspective analyses of the deeper levels of existence, in particular the self, Vedic deities and the ritualism of Vedic religion became less important. Doctrines like karma and dharma emphasized individual effort for liberation and the Brahman-atman synthesis pointed to divinity for every human soul irrespective of the Vedic deities. However, the introspective approach to Brahman did not entirely eschew Vedic ritual, it rather searched for the inner meaning of it, and however philosophical the Upanisads were, the importance of scriptural authority (sruti) was never denied. The influence which Upanisadic thought had on subsequent Hindu beliefs was colossal. The major concepts of karma, samsara, moksa, atman, Brahman and the relationship between these last two - indeed so much of what is accepted in Hinduism today - owes its origin to Vedantic thought. Five of the six Hindu orthodox schools of philosophical thought - Vedanta, Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaisesika, Yoga - are based on the Vedanta, while the sixth, Purva Mimamsa, began by being orientated to the more ritualistic earlier Vedic period and later to Vedantic thought. It would be true to say that Vedantic teachings served as the basis of all Hindu thought, the search for the real in the world of the unreal, the search for light in the darkness of the world, and the search for immortality in the face of death.