Mukti, Liberation according to Rāmānuja

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Mukti, Liberation according to Rāmānuja

Among the four ends of life (Puruṣārthas), namely dharma or the practice of righteousness, artha or economic gain, kāma or enjoyment of the pleasures of life here and in heaven, and mokṣa or the attainment of freedom from the ills of birth, the last is extolled by the Vedānta as the supreme end and aim of life.

The devotee liberated from ignorance and desire has a foretaste of the bliss of Brahman and the intimation of immortality in his momentary intuition of God in this life.

But the experience of Brahman in this life is not eternal and integral and it is only by going to the world of Brahman that the mukta attains the security and stability of immortal bliss.

The Advaitin thinks that liberation (mukti), is the knowledge of the self-existent absolute (nir-guṇa Brahman). Libera­tion is possible in this life, here-now (jīvan-mukti), and also afterwards (videha-mukti).

All the other Vedāṅtins repudiate the theory. They contend that mukti is one and it is not freedom in empirical life here but freedom from empirical life by actually transcending the world of space and time.

If, as Advaitins hold, Brahman is not to be attended anew by any sādhana, then moral endeavour and religious attainment have no meaning and value.

The Viśiṣṭādvaita avoids these defects by distinguishing between the empirical world of space-time and pleasure-pain and the transcendental realm (parama-pada) which is also the home of the eternal values of truth, goodness, beauty and bliss.

It describes ascent of the mukta after the dissolution of the body to the blissful land of Vaikuṇṭha by the straight and shining path of deva-yāna.

There matter shines in a supernatural (a-prākṛta) way without any mutability. Time exists under the form of eternity and the mukta freed from the limitations of karma regains his infinite jñāna and is deified but without the quality of cosmic rulership.

The liberated soul has a direct vision of Brahman and is absorbed in the eternal bliss of union with Him (Sāyujya).

To him the pluralistic world remains but the pluralistic view is abolished. The distinction between the ātman and Brahman is eternal, but the sense of separateness disappears in the state of union (a-vibhāga).

There is no loss of personality. The liberated soul does not serve God by co-operating with Him but gives up egoity by realizing “I and yet not I, but Thou in me.”