LIBERATION HAS AN IMMEDIATE RELEVANCE

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

52. LIBERATION HAS AN IMMEDIATE RELEVANCE
The supreme, ultimate goal of the Vedic way of life is moksha or liberation. And while the
immediacy of this goal has been posited and affirmed in the here and now sense of jivan-mukti
(liberated in this life while still living), still a feeling has been created that it is something remote to
be striven after, to be attained, to be reached far away, a distant goal: “yad gatva na nivartante tad
dhama paramam mama (Having gone thither, they return not: that is My supreme abode).”
But liberation has a relevance, an immediate relevance and implication as well. And
perhaps if this immediate implication is not recognised, understood and grasped, then the
traditional concept of liberation will always continue to be a far-off, distant and remote attainment.
Perhaps we will never reach towards it.

For, there are many things—it is not only ajnana or ignorance—that bind the jivatman in
this body. There are many other petty things—petty but powerful—that hold us to this earth-life
consciousness, to jivahood. They have been binding us since birth. And, it is to liberate ourselves
from this immediate bondage that a certain way of life has been prescribed for us within the context
of the Vedic way of life.
The first thing we have to liberate ourselves from is selfishness. Identification with the body
creates a false sense of a separate personality, an entity. And it is not only a false sense. It is a false
sense of a false personality, where the falseness of the false personality is carefully veiled away
from our perception. It is endowed with a sense of being a solid reality, and we are bound to it. This
is the veil of maya.
Due to this sense of a separate identity and the idea that this personality is very, very
important, there arises selfishness. A selfish person always expects something from others. And
where there is expectation there is misery—there is always misery. There is also raga-dvesha, like
and dislike, attraction and repulsion. There is anger also. All these are defects of selfishness.
But the foremost defect of selfishness is expectation. A selfish psyche or individual expects
something from others, from this world, from everything, all of God’s creation. And expectation
means misery. So, if you want to liberate yourself from misery, you have to liberate yourself from
selfishness through a new approach to life.
If your attitude becomes one of unselfishness, of selflessness, of living for others, not
demanding or taking from others, you will expect nothing, but you will give everything. Then you
are freed from the frustration and disappointment of non-fulfilment of expectation, because there is
no expectation to be fulfilled. So the misery of non-fulfilment is out of the question for you. You
eliminate it from your life. You become contented. You are a happy, cheerful, satisfied person.
We also have to gradually learn to liberate ourselves from the stern tyrannical demands of
the annamaya kosa or the gross body. To do this, Patanjali prescribed tapasya. Train yourself to
hardship, simplicity of life. Do not pamper your body. Do not be luxurious. Don’t be a softy all your
life. Do not give in to the body’s demands for comfort and luxury. In its extreme form it can mean
walking with bare feet and keeping your head uncovered in the hot summer sun. Thus, liberate
yourself from the tyrannical stranglehold that the body has on you.
Now, this is indicative of what liberation means. Apply it to the demands that each one of
the kosas (sheaths) makes upon your consciousness: the pranic sheath with its hunger and thirst, the
mental sheath with its sentiments, desires, scheming, imaginations and projecting into the future. In
a hundred ways they tyrannise you. But unless you liberate yourself from their tyrannical
stranglehold, how can you expect supreme liberation? Unless you liberate yourself from these little
attachments, these little earthly affections—sense pleasures, sense of importance—how can you
expect aparoksha-anubhuti?
We must further liberate ourselves from earthly affections and attachments. As long as you
have earthly affections and attachments, they divert your mind and they focus your attention and

energy towards themselves. And, as long as your mind and heart are scattered and focussed upon
various things, giving yourself with all your heart to the Supreme Reality is out of the question.
Liberating yourself from earthly attachments and affections is a preparation, an
indispensable prerequisite to fulfilling the greatest of all commandments of the Lord Jesus to love
the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul—with your entire being.
We must refuse to be beguiled, attracted and entangled in created things. Say: “Not anything you
have created, O Lord, but You and You alone is whom I desire, whom I long for, whom I yearn
after, whom I love and cherish with all my heart’s love and devotion.” That is necessary if you want
to have atma-nishtha (steady abidance in the Self).
Therefore, you must liberate yourself from the powerful pull of the senses towards their
sense-objects. You must learn to recognise the hollowness of all things. What we think is pleasure is
actually pain. What we think is happiness is actually misery. Ye hi samsparsaja bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te (The enjoyments that are born of contacts are only wombs of pain). Thus,
very, very categorically, clearly, unambiguously and unmistakably this truth has been put before us,
not merely for our knowledge or information, but for making it the basis of our relationship with all
the pleasurable sensations and attractions of sense-objects.
Therefore, when this is known, curbing the senses becomes natural. You don’t want to rush
towards your own unhappiness. You don’t want to rush towards misery and pain. The viveki
(discriminating one) doesn’t do it. The budhah, one who is awakened in intellect, does not go after
them. Be a wise person. Be a viveki. Liberate yourself from the pains that arise by expecting
pleasurable sensations from things that are the source of misery and pain.
Therefore, liberate yourself from the senses that drag you towards the sense-objects.
Liberate yourself from the tendency of the mind to move towards the senses. Discipline and control
of the senses and conquest of the mind is also an immediate liberation. This is liberation for you. It
has an immediate relevance, and unless this liberation in its immediacy is first of all recognised,
pursued and attained, you cannot move forward to that ultimate liberation.
Liberation commences here and now. Liberation must be attained right here. And it is only
when you know that the whole visible universe is a myth, a dream, a long drawn dream—it has no
substance, it is meaningless, it is like a bubble, its value is zero—that you become liberated from the
immediate oppressive sense of the so-called solid reality of this world. Vedanta alone can liberate
you here and now from this oppressive sense.
You cannot go after two realities. If you want to dedicate yourself totally to the attainment
of the Reality, it cannot have a competitor. It is either the world or God. It is either the anatman or
the Atman. Everything created is a great jugglery of maya. Not only this universe, but millions and
billions of universes constitute a big cipher to the true Vedantin or the true lover of God.
We should liberate ourselves right now! Liberation from this sense of reality of the outer
universe brings immediate, total serenity. There is no inclination for the inner being to move either
this way or that way. For one knows that one moves only towards ciphers, empty nothings. So, why
burden yourself by moving towards something which has no meaning, no value, no substance?

Thus one becomes settled in the inner sanctum. Serenity prevails. Peace descends. One is
always steadfastly established in a peace that is unknown to one who takes this world to be a reality.
Thus, the immediate liberation of oneself from selfishness, love of created things, the
attractions of pleasurable sense-objects and the sense of reality of appearances, becomes a great
blessedness, a great state of blessedness. It yields immediate dividends here and now. You don’t
have to wait for some far-off state. Instantaneous is the gain of this progressive process of liberating
yourself from all that holds you bound to anything else other than the Supreme Reality.
Liberate yourself every moment. Keep on liberating yourself with every breath, every step
that you take. Let your entire day-to-day living be a process of ever liberating yourself from every
factor that binds you. This is the process. This is the sadhana—the unseen sadhana—known to you,
seen by God and none else. Launch yourself upon this process of immediate liberation right now
and get immediate gains step by step, progressively! There is no end to this immediate gain and
blessedness, ever-increasing blessedness!