Liberation

To understand “Liberation” we need to understand “Bondage” first. Bondage means suffering, pain, feeling like we are chained, shackled or tied up. Bondage also means facing Karmic Results, either good or bad. Bondage also means riding the wheel of TIME, by taking Birth and Death again and again in a different body or non-body forms. Bondage also means Suffering in Hell or Enjoying in Heaven. Bondage also means doing/creating karma endlessly either good or bad. Bondage also means “our bucket” of ALL Karma (Sanchit, Prarabdha, Agami). All this is bondage. Now let’s understand “WHO” is in “Bondage” in you?

So you know that we are SOUL+PERSONALITY (Body, Mind, Emotions), Jeevatma, so who goes into the “Bondage”? Who stays in Bondage? ONLY the Personality (Body, Mind, Emotions) or Jeeva. Soul was NEVER born, will NEVER die, CANNOT do any Karma, so it’s NEVER in any Bondage and it NEVER needs any Liberation. But people are NOT living as Souls or Pure Consciousness. 

They are identified with Mind, Body, Emotions (The World/Sansara). So they are in Bondage. Now when Enlightenment, Self Realization happens, that means all Karma is OVER, it’s SPENT, it’s BURNT. Only the momentum of Prarabdha is left, that’s why a person still is living in the body and may go through some life pains, pleasures but now there is no one to suffer, or enjoy inside him/her. There is NO EXPERIENCER, NO DOER within. And when a person is Self-Realized no matter what he/she does in this world, he/she cannot create any Karma. Because the DOER/WILL in him/her DIED. The mind is the DOER; Body takes the ACTION; Emotions are the INTENTIONS/VOLITIONS for any Karma. So now he/she is not doing anything “INTENTIONALLY/VOLITIONALLY”, life goes whichever way Divine intends, or whichever way Divine feels appropriate. A self-realized person has NO MIND, NO EMOTIONS, NO WILL of his/her own, so then there is NO ONE in BONDAGE, so there is LIBERATION. ABSENCE OF BONDAGE IS LIBERATION. RESULT of SELF REALIZATION is LIBERATION. Such a person is NEVER BORN again and is FREE from Life and Death cycles are above and beyond time and space. But Once anyone is Liberated HE/SHE NEVER KNOWS THAT. Why? Who is there for such a person to even know Bondage or Liberation. It’s a complete ANNIHILATION of the Self/Person/Personality everything! So how to know whether I am liberated or not. And after full death who cares! Who is there to care about anything, everything or nothing in this life anymore?

Now comes the MOST interesting part. A person can be LIBERATED WITHOUT ENLIGHTENMENT. Enlightenment is NOT NEEDED for Liberation. The one who has fully controlled his Mind and Emotions and the DOER in him/her is dead through Postmortem/Reflection, or other methods/practices, and he/she lives life without any DOER-SHIP, Without Intentions/Volitions, that kind of person is LIBERATED, again the same thing he/she killed his mind, emotions through some way/method/sadhana/tapas. It is difficult to do it, but a LOT of people have done it and they are Self Realized too. Because Self-Realization is the Realization that you are Shiva, Shoonya, Void, Nothingness, and that happens when Mind, Emotions, and Will are cast aside, discarded and the UNREALITY/MAYA of the world is understood. A person has to live this way (without mind, emotions) for a time period (All 3 gunas/virtues recede) to be Liberated.

That’s why we say that Enlightenment is NOT the GOAL, LIBERATION is the GOAL, Being Whole is the Goal. Enlightenment is SUPER helpful in achieving Liberation, as it creates the distance between you and your mind/body/emotions, but is not NECESSARY and it’s NOT everyone’s path. A lot of people are Liberated without being Exploded through Truth Bomb of Enlightenment. Enlightenment is also SUPER PAINFUL, because of the physical, neurological changes that happen and the mystical side that it adds to one’s life is also quite challenging. But for some it’s the ONLY path, that’s how Divine wishes to operate through them.

Note -  When we talk about being without Mind, Emotions and Will, that doesn’t mean we do not use Mind, Emotions, Will where necessary, it only means that we are NO LONGER being controlled by them, we are no longer a SLAVE of them, we are MASTERS of them and most importantly they are NOT PERSONALIZED Version of our own, there is no Self, hence personal mind is replaced by the Cosmic Mind. Enlightened people, Self-realized people, and Liberated ones display the use of Cosmic Mind and Pure Consciousness reflected as Emotions in a really nice, perfect way, but without intending it, Intention is of Divine. They still live life the way they were living before if they were smokers, drinkers, they may or may not change, there is no one and no need to initiate any change. If they were rule breakers, bad-ass people, they will still be that way, they don’t try to suddenly become SAINT or live like a GURU or BHAGWAAN or anything like that. They may play all these and many other Roles for the rest of their life, as and when Divine wants them to. 

~ Prakriti