The Best Way to Moksha in Hinduism

by Jayaram V

Question: Some claim that it is Shankara's view that the scriptures are the one and only means of Self-knowledge, and as the sole pramana (which they define as means of knowledge), listening to them alone (sravanam) yields jnanam. Mananam and nididhyasanam are only for the assimilation of knowledge gained through Sravanam. According to them nothing yields jnanam, neither nirvikalpa samadhi nor any type of mystic experience. There is only one way, and that is Sravanam of Vedanta through a Sampradayika Guru with Sankara Bhashya, given to a qualified Sadhaka with Sadhana Catushtayam. This upset me at a deep level....it was always my understanding, experience, and conviction that Truth is available for direct experiential knowing (aparoksha anubhuti) through the culmination of various spiritual disciplines, resulting in Samadhi, or the false self simply "disappearing," or being seen through. I humbly request your insight on the subject.

Is there only one better way to live life or experience anything? Is there only one path to knowledge and liberation? Can there be only one religion, one Prophet or messenger of God? If you heard so, you must examine such assertions in the context of your own observations about the world and nature of life. In the following discussion, you may not find a definite answer, but a few important principles which may help you find your own answer.

1. Diversity is the nature of existence

According to Hinduism, the world and life are characterized by diversity. If there is anything which is one and only in the whole universe and which is indivisible and indestructible, it is God only. Hinduism acknowledges that God’s creation is diverse, and so are the paths to Moksha (liberation) that lead to him or the faiths that glorify him.

The doctrine of karma in Hinduism implies that life is all about choices. You make a choice and you take responsibility for the consequences, depending upon with what attitude you make that choice. If there is no scope for making a choice, there will be no need for will or karma or freedom. You will be in a rut, enslaved to a deterministic life, with little scope for hope or change.

However, you know that you have the control over some aspects of life, and you have can change your life within your human limitations. If you are intelligent, with that little freedom you can make a world of difference to yourself and others. Your choices may be right or wrong. To ascertain them, you have to depend upon your own intelligence or upon the authority of scriptures, tradition or common practice. When conflicting opinions are available, you may either go by the majority opinion or your own discretion.

Therefore, if anyone tells you, “This is the only path to Moksha or salvation,” you do not have to believe in it. You may view it with skepticism or pursue it with an open mind or simple faith to see where it will lead you. Thus, even in this respect you have a choice.

2. Faith is important

In devotional theism, blind faith in God helps. It may even compensate for the weaknesses in the methods you choose. However, it is always better to have faith as well as discerning wisdom. The devotional literature of Hinduism places a great emphasis upon faith (shraddah) because they acknowledge that in God’s creation no one can be certain of anything because truth is clouded by ignorance and delusion.

Hence, faith is more important than any religion or path. It is your faith, which makes any religion, path or philosophy effective or ineffective, great or ordinary. Without faith, you cannot move far on any path to attain Moksha. Sometimes a teacher may insist upon a particular method, as in case of Shankara Bhashya, just to avoid confusion or make the practice simpler for the followers.

If you follow that teacher, it is better to accept his method with simple faith and proceed accordingly. However, it would be a mistake to declare that as an absolute or universal truth, and confuse those who do not practice it. In spirituality, you are not in competition with any one, but yourself, unless you have other aims to promote your brand of spirituality for personal or material rewards, in which case karma will prevail.

3. Faith makes all the difference

Faith plays an important role both in your religious and spiritual life. In the spiritual journey, faith is more important than even a Guru. Here, it is your faith, which supports your reason rather than the opposite. Your effort sustained by your faith produces the result. The same holds true for the teachings of your guru. It is not your guru, but your faith in your guru which makes possible your liberation. The same principle applies to any scripture, prayer, mantra, deity, or belief.

Sometimes a guru may prove to be an imperfect person. Because of his past karma, imperfections, and impurities, he may possess character flaws. He may be a scholar-teacher rather than a self-realized yogi, but my still assume the mantle of a guru because his own guru failed to recognize the truth about him and allowed him to be his official successor.

Even then, if your faith is strong, and if you have not followed him for selfish reasons or developed physical or mental attachment to him, your guru's bad karma or his imperfections will not taint you. It can be an emotional setback for you because of the social and psychological repercussions, but unless your own karma is involved your spiritual progress remains unimpeded. The Bhagavadgita clearly states that there is no loss on this path. You can restart from where you have left. If your faith is strong and if your resolve is unshaken, your journey will continue even if you have been a victim of your guru's mischief.

Therefore, faith is important, faith in your guru, faith in your scriptures, faith in your methods, and faith in your goal. If you believe that you cannot achieve self-realization without a guru or without studying scriptures, they become your limiting factors, and your faith makes sure that they become your reality. If you believe in some other method or standard, that becomes your reality and leads you on the path. A wise teacher (jnani) knows it. Hence, he tries to reduce your confusion by suggesting that you should trust him and let him show you the path or the method.

The determining factor as well as the limiting factor in your spiritual life, and in any teaching and teacher tradition that you follow, is your faith, or your belief, which creates the intended reality for you. Since faith varies from person to person, and from group to group, according to the gunas (sattva, rajas, and tamas), we have many paths, many teachers, and many religious traditions, each holding itself to be true and, sometimes, at conflict with others.

4. What is good for you need not be good for others

Both in worldly life and in spiritual life, it is better to have faith in your goals, methods, morals and techniques. However, you cannot insist that they will hold well for all others. Others have to make that choice according to their faith and karma. To hold your choices as the universal absolutes or spiritual imperatives for everyone and make them the main aspects of your liberation theology is a mistake. In its essence, it is very similar to the argument put forward by some religions that their scripture is the only absolute truth and everything else is false. Any absolute truth must be eternal, without a beginning and an end. If it has a beginning, it is neither eternal nor absolute.

5. The infinite cannot have finite means to know him

You can reach any destination in the universe in several ways, and by a number of means. One may argue that there is only one way and only one method. For those who have seen the destination and know the paths, it does not make a convincing argument. There is nothing definitive about Brahman. To say that you can reach him by only one method means that you are making him finite and definable. Brahman is all. He is both "Is" and "Is not," existence and nonexistence, manifested and unmanifested. For those who believe, he is, and for those who do not believe, he is not. The same holds true for spiritual life and spiritual journey. All paths lead to him only. Many lifetimes may pass before you find the right path to Moksha to become liberated.

6. You have many choices but they are limited by karma

In the journey of life as well as liberation, you have many options, but they are limited by your faith and your karma. Sometimes, you may make a right choice but still may not succeed if your karma is bad, or you may make a wrong choice and may still find your way if your fortunes are good or if the gods are happy with you.

Sometimes life chooses to rescue you from your own self-destructive actions because of your past merits or the blessings of your elders or divine beings. Hinduism rightly recognizes the importance of God and fate in the destiny of human beings. However, their importance should be construed in the context of karma only because they too manifest in your life according to your karma.

Your current effort is always a culmination of the merit which you accumulated through several lives. Your choices and desires are influenced by your predominant nature, which in turn is influenced by your karma. There are no limits to divine possibilities. However, because of karma there are limitations to your knowledge, intelligence, and discretion and thereby limitations to what you may or may not choose to achieve Moksha.

7. The Goal is one but the paths are many

In any journey, the destination is always one, but the paths that lead to it are numerous. You can reach one point from another point in innumerable ways. Hinduism accepts this fundamental reality as its guiding principle. Recent researches in space science suggest that theoretically, it is not even necessary to travel in space to reach one point from another. Since space is like a fabric, it can be folded with a great mass of energy to connect two distant points in space and minimize the travel time. Be it science or spirituality, truth is many sided and open ended. In existence, there are no certainties, but only possibilities and probabilities.

The same is true with regard to Moksha.  Hindu seers might not be aware of these modern scientific truths, but they knew that the infinite God could be manifested in one’s own consciousness across all barriers to attain Moksha. They also knew that the possibilities were endless in the transcendental realm to perform any task or reach any goal, especially the goal of liberation, but what influenced the individual choices and outcomes in any situation was the purity of intelligence.

As our knowledge grows, our knowledge of methods, paths, and solutions improve and thereby our discretion and choices. Some paths may take longer to fructify and appear more strenuous but their merits or demerits cannot be determined with a sweeping judgment because they may be suitable to certain categories of people. Hence, it is better not to question the wisdom or the methods of any who are intent upon their methods to achieve liberation. Some people are destined to choose difficult paths to set an example to others, breaks the old patterns or teach them lessons.

8. There are no universal scriptures or methods

The scriptures are a great source of knowledge and have their own value in spiritual practice. They are useful to cultivate right awareness about oneself and to know the methods which one can practice to purify oneself and achieve liberation. However, one cannot say whether reading them or remembering them is the only means to self-realization, without corresponding faith, effort and preparation. They may lead you on the journey and prepare you for liberation over several lives, but having a mental connection to the scriptural knowledge by itself does not lead to liberation, unless the knowledge contained in them becomes a reality for you through effort.

Many spiritual people do not study the Vedas. They know little about them. Yet, they achieve liberation. For example, some sects of Shaivism reject the Vedas and follow the Agamas and Tantras. They also follow different methods to discipline their minds and bodies. There were saints and sages from certain Hindu castes, who were not traditionally allowed to study the Vedas and who did not practice any sravanam before they attained liberation. Many saints like Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Baba, achieved liberation before they studied any scripture. The Jains and Buddhists do not approve of the Vedas or the Upanishads. They do not worship our gods. Yet, they have their own ascetic and spiritual methods to achieve liberation.

9. Pratyaksha anubhava, direct experience is more important

Sravanam (listening), Dhyanam (contemplating), Mananam (remembering) are some of the means for the Direct Experience of (pratyaksha) the Self (atmadarshana), which is the goal. Everyone who practices them is not automatically liberated. Knowledge must become the living reality in you through experience for the knowledge to become validated. Unless knowledge comes to life as experience, how can you confirm that it is valid?

Direct experience (pratyaksha) is therefore invaluable in both spiritual and worldly life. It is through personal experience only that knowledge becomes truth. All the six schools of Hinduism place their emphasis primarily upon Direct Experience (pratyaksha). The Bhagavadgita suggests knowledge (jnana), dutiful actions (karma), devotion (bhakti), combined with renunciation of desires (sanyasa) as the best method.

In the transcendental state, you are free from the duality of the knower and the known. Your mind and senses do not participate in it. Therefore, there is neither perception nor cognition in any transcendental experience, unless it is incomplete and unless some vague mental activity is still going on. Hence, the person who experiences the transcendental state of the Self may not know or remember what happened or what was experienced.

The experience itself brings a profound transformation within that person, whereby sense-control, renunciation, detachment, sameness, etc., become natural to him and require no effort or inner struggle on his part to practice them. They become secondary to his nature, or part of his natural disposition, whereby it becomes certain to him and to others that his spiritual practice has reached its culmination, purity (sattva) has become firmly established, and the natural state of the Self has become integral to his consciousness.

10. Advaita is not the only solution

Advaita is one of the several schools of thoughts in Hinduism. It is not the only philosophy, nor is Sri Adi Shankaracharya the only credible, spiritual guru of Hinduism. This is not to discredit him, but to state the fundamental truth about spirituality. There are many schools, sects, and teacher traditions, each having their own methods. Even within Advaita there are several streams of knowledge. That we have six Darshanas (philosophies) and several sects, each with a history of over 2000 years and methods that are peculiar to them, is a conclusive proof that the Paths to Truth are many.

11. Attachment to the path is an obstacle

You can take any of these sects and say, "This is it. This is the best." When you say it, you must know whether you do it because of your personal experience or because of your attachment to the tradition or to the teachers. Attachment to a path, sect, religion, belief, or guru is also like any other attachment. It binds and limits and can seriously hamper anyone's spiritual progress. At some stage in your spiritual journey, you have to even stop meditating upon a particular form or aspect of Brahman because you are not free from worldliness and you cannot achieve liberation until you have transcended all names, forms, dualities, and delusions.

12. Your true guru is your Isvara.

If your faith is strong and free from doubts, the Isvara in his eternal wisdom will make all your wishes, methods and intentions come true. I am not speaking of Isvara in the ordinary sense of God as the one who sits in the heaven and keeps a watch over the worlds. I am speaking about the one indivisible Self who is you, your true Self. For humans, he is the only refuge, the true guru, and the door way to liberation.

Since you are an aspect of Brahman, you have the ultimate power to make things possible with the methods you choose. It is not blasphemy in our Dharma to think subjectively "Aham Brahmasmi," "I am God." What is blasphemous is to expect that others should treat you like God and worship you. Unfortunately, many people let themselves become trapped in that delusion and develop attachment to the form of their gurus rather than practice the faith they teach as part of their guru-dharma.

Maya

The diversity has a purpose. It is part of Maya. Hence, it draws the beings into worldliness and binds them to the cycle of births and deaths. Being become caught in the diversity through their minds and senses. They experience attractions and aversion, desires and attachments, which leads to karma and bondage. The purpose of Maya is to hide truth, delude people, create uncertainty and keep them guessing. Only the purest can discern the truth and find their way to the world of Brahman. The rest remain deluded and bound. Multiple religions and their differences confound the human mind and create confusion, and thereby they serve well the purpose of Maya.

Choice

One of the purposes of diversity is to create choice so that people can exercise their discretion, pursue their goals and live according to their desires and expectations. Creation is open ended so that there can many choices and approaches to perform any action or pursue any goal. One of the obvious truths of creation is that any destination in the entire universe can be reached or approached by multiple paths and multiple means. Thus, having choices in any situation makes life more tolerable and comfortable. It also gives hope and opportunity to change or improve one’s circumstances. Without choice, life would be miserable. People will become stuck in a rut and lead unhappy lives. Besides, since people are different, possess different temperaments, preferences and attitudes and since they are in different stages of mental and spiritual evolution it is better that they have a choice to choose the right path or religion that suits their spiritual and mental wellbeing.

Free will

Although God creates the worlds and enforces his Law as the upholder of Dharma, he gives freedom to the embodied souls to live their lives according to their free will and pursue their goals. Although we are subject to many limitations in the mortal world, within those limitations we still have a lot of freedom to exercise our free will and make things possible. In respect of the religions also people have the freedom to choose their faith and take responsibility for it. The Bhagavadgita explains how the permutation and combination of the triple gunas along with karma create in us a diversity of desires, behaviors and attachments. As our nature, so is our faith. A person is made up of his faith only because his faith is made up of his essential nature. We must therefore accept diversity of religions also and learn to accept them as part of God’s diversity in creation.

Karma

Karma plays an important role human life. In each birth, it influences your choice of faith also. The triple Gunas play an important role in influencing the religions of the world and the people who practice them. For example, each of the world religion has the predominance of either sattva, rajas or tamas or a combination of all. Within each religion also you have aspects and teachings which are either sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. People are drawn to them according to their nature and their karma. We have multiple religions so that people can follow them according to their faith and their nature. Karma manifests in creation because of free will only. As people exercise their will and use their discretion to live according to their choices, preferences, likes and dislikes, they become subject to karma, which in turn lead to bondage. Karma arises

1. Diversity is the nature of existence