Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands

25 December 2017

Moksha

“Mukta and Mukti”


Moksha in the Sanskrit language means freedom from samsara. Samsara in the Sanskrit language means the cycle of life. Mukti means release or deliverance from bondage that an individual is the doer, speaker and the thinker in the cycle of life. Moksha indicates enlightenment.

William Edward Hickson is credited for the old adage ‘try and try until you succeed’. There are quotes such as: ‘Failure is the stepping stone of success’ and ‘Giving up is the only sure way to fail.’

The saying and the quotes drive every individual to attain. Individuals try and keep trying to attain enlightenment or moksha, to become a mukta, meaning an individual who is free from bondage, apart from attaining other things in daily life.

The above saying and the quotes need to be pondered wisely to ascertain whether they are true or not. They need to be wisely understood that they are conditioned beliefs, which nevertheless are not true.

A moment in life happens by itself ever since life began on earth. Man was not present in life when life began on earth. This signifies that a moment in life was always happening and life did not need man to make the moment in life.

It further signifies that life manifested a moment together with man within it just as life had manifested a moment together with vegetation and the animal kingdom within it.

Morning and life are one in the same moment in life. This signifies that the morning and life are the same with different names and different intensity of the moment during the day.

Therefore, an individual neither needs to try nor has to keep trying for the moment with morning in it. This signifies that even the different intensity of the moment in life during the day happen without an individual trying.

This signifies that a thought of the morning and the thought of what will happen in any moment of the day can neither make the morning nor can make what is thought will happen.

The above wise understanding also signifies that all man's activities happen spontaneously as an expression of the dawning of the morning of any moment with its different name and intensity.

Similarly, moksha, meaning freedom or enlightenment, happens. Mukti meaning release or deliverance from bondage to an individual happens; also release or deliverance of freedom to an individual happens, if it is meant to happen in the moment during the day. An individual neither needs to try nor needs to keep trying to attain it.

Moksha or enlightenment will happen if it is meant to happen to the individual or mukta. Similarly, everything else that is meant to happen will happen, including the try or trying by an individual.

The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that an individual is not the doer because every moment in daily life happens and the moment in daily life includes whatever is within the moment, albeit illusory, including the try, trying and the individual.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017

Editor’s Note:
It happened that shortly after reading this article a man went out on his daily round. During this daily round he received a phone call. ‘Okay, I’ll be there in a moment’ was his immediate and typical response. As he heard these words, a chuckle of understanding arose within him. Wonderful is this moment in which the moment reveals itself within itself. There is no effort, not even the trying to understand. It was, it is and it always will be self-evident. Man’s gratitude to the enlightened is this very moment.
Julian Capper, UK.

German Translator’s Note: 
The realisation that everything happens when and if it is meant to happen, is moksha and this means that moksha also happens when it is meant to happen. What a clear and simple explanation of enlightenment Dr. Shankar provides in this article. However, it is not easy to understand that life happens. The conditioning of the mind is strong and convincingly real! Therefore one article after the other flows through Dr. Shankar’s mind, in order to help everybody to overcome the conditioning slowly and steadyly, if it is meant to happen. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany. 

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