Liberation – Ultimate Freedom - 1

 

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Liberation – Ultimate Freedom - 1

This post is in two parts.

Swamiji has introduced us to the concept of moksha or liberation. Birth and death are two phases of life. There are various dimensions between birth and death – infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. A dimension has proportions, something that can be defined, described, grasped, and understood. What we are referring to as moksha is dimensionless – it cannot be defined, described, or grasped. “Will I attain moksha?” Never! Nobody will. When we cease to be any dimension – not physical, not metaphysical, not this, not that, nothing – when we become dimensionless, that’s moksha.

Dimension means there is a boundary. Moksha means there is no boundary, no bondage. This is all negative terminology, but it is a very positive possibility. Moksha is non-existence. Shiva means non-existence – that which is not. Moksha means to become like that. It is wrong to even refer to Shiva as “him” or “her,” because gender is a dimension. Shiva is dimensionless non-existence. Non-existence does not mean it is not there at all. Right now, our experience of anything in existence is as a certain dimension – this or that. Dimensionless-ness means there is no this or that. What is neither this nor that is not a neuter – it is beyond. There is no way to grasp or understand moksha – the only way is to become that. But we should not aspire to become that. We cannot aspire to become something that is not yet in our experience, perception, or understanding.

The only thing we can do is keep cutting down whatever binds us. If everything that binds us is cut down, if nothing binds us – neither life nor death, neither this nor that, neither god nor devil, neither heaven nor hell – that is moksha. We should not seek moksha – only seek how to be free from every kind of bondage. If we want to fly in the sky, we don’t have to know much about the sky – we just have to know what is holding us on the ground. It is the understanding of gravity that allows us to fly, not our understanding of the sky. It is not a question of how to grasp the sky but how to beat gravity. So, we should not try to grasp moksha. We should not even aspire for it, because that will lead to hallucinations.

The mind is fickle and it cannot remain in a state of “I do not know.” Either it has to know, or it will make assumptions about what it does not know. If we make moksha a dimension in our mind, it will unnecessarily take us round in circles. We should keep chipping away at things that bind us. One day, when we see there is nothing more to chip, what has to happen will happen. There is no need to aspire for it, because if we aspire, we will imagine. 

All imagination comes from an exaggerated memory, which is not good, because we will be projecting the past into the future. Maybe in a different form, in a different colour, but still our imagination is supported by our memory, and memory is past.

To be continued…..