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Is liberation the end of the birth-death cycle? No. To achieve moksha means complete liberation. Moksha means eternal happiness. There is nothing above and beyond moksha. If people believe there is something beyond moksha, then they have not understood moksha. Moksha means freedom from any worldly desires, and that is eternal bliss. There are two types of moksha: Causal moksha (karan moksha) and effect moksha ( karya moksha). Karan moksha is attainable in the current time cycle but not karya moksha. After a person acquires karan moksha, he will have one or two more lives after which he will acquire karya moksha.
Many claim that moksha is not possible in this day and age, because God had said so. Words uttered by God can never be wrong but what did Lord Mahavir really say? Lord Mahavir said that moksha was not possible during the current time cycle from this location (Bharat kshetra) of ours, but people misunderstood this statement and claim that moksha was not possible at all and they stopped trying to achieve it altogether and many followed suit. But who says that we have to go along with everyone else? What has the Lord said? He has said that you cannot get a check in the amount of 100,000 rupees from this location (earth) during the current time cycle, but it is possible to get a check in the amount of 99,999 rupees, and what is more, you will have some spare change as spending money. If you are told that the path of moksha is not open, should you not at least bother to find out up to what point it is open? If a train does not go all the way to Baroda but goes to Sharad, then should you not at least board that train to go to Baroda? But instead what people do is they do not even bother to leave their home, they have closed even their front door shut. Who is to blame when such misunderstanding occurs? Here your check is short by only one paisa!
Why is the path to moksha closed in the current time cycle? People have brought with them so many karmas that despite traveling in cars, buses and trains, their work is not finished. Their karmas have become so complex that liberation is not possible in this time cycle. At certain time cycle human beings have bound karmas, which are now being dissipated. Where did all these human beings come from? Many have come here with a return ticket to the animal kingdom (tiriyanj gati) with a total of 33 points, which earns them a birth in the human form, at 32 points many would have been born a donkey! The extra point earned them a human body. They may look like a human being but from within they have animalistic tendencies. This is one of the bizarre occurrences that are taking place in the current time cycle.
Of the six different time cycles, the fifth is the best time cycle. In this time cycle on the one hand there is a ‘furnace’ (suffering) and on the other there is a scientist (a Avatar – who shows you the way to escape this furnace). No matter how impure an ornament of gold maybe, a gold smith will be able to extract the pure gold from it. During the sixth time cycle, only the furnace will be there but there will not be a gold smith (Gnani). During In the sixth time cycle, the existence of the knower of the path of liberation is very rare.
The path of liberation is very narrow and complex and to find the one that knows this path is even more difficult. If you find such a person, then you just have to ask him to grant you liberation. The Lord said that liberation was very close at hand, but you must find a nimit (a Gnani – who becomes instrumental in your procuring the path). Without the Avatar, liberation is not possible. Only the one who is liberated can give liberation. Many leave behind their families, believing they are free from worldly attachments, but they do not realize that they will have new attachment. Wherever they go, their attachment will keep on increasing from within. Only the Avatar (Gnani) can get rid of your attachments – that is the task for the Gnani, just as it is a task for the doctor to prescribe the right medication. If someone asks a grocer for heart medication, the grocer will tell him to go to a doctor. People have completely misunderstood what the Lord has said. They have swallowed the ‘medicine’, which was meant to be applied topically. How can the medicine work if it is not taken as prescribed? How can you expect if to work if you do not follow instructions correctly? Liberation is in your own hands; the Soul itself is liberation. The Lord had said that people’s conduct today does not meet the requirements for moksha, but nevertheless it is good enough to take one to the Deva gati (celestial kingdom). For moksha one will need to abide by the Lord’s directives. The conduct one acquires after Atma Gnan (Self Realization) is the kind of conduct required for moksha.
Where can you find the absolute path of moksha? Where the worldly life is never rejected or abandoned. If you reject your worldly life, then you will inevitably hurt someone. That is not the path of moksha. Only where there is complete worldly interactions and complete determination for liberation, can the path to liberation be found. The path of liberation is where everyone can sit side by side, regardless of their race or religion, and where everyone will listen. There will be no objection to what is being said.
The Lord has said that if you cannot find the path to liberation, do not fall into bad deeds – continue doing good deeds. When you find the path of liberation, there is no need to worry about good or bad deeds. To do good is the path of action; when you do good, you will bind punya (merit karma) and when you do bad, you will bind paap karma (demerit karma), but the path of the Lord is the pure path. There is no good or bad here and there is no paap or punya. Both paap and punya are bondage. Paap is a shackle of iron and punya is a shackle of gold.
If you cannot find the path to liberation, continue doing good deeds – because if you do bad deeds, you will not be able to tolerate its consequences. Being born of Indian ancestry, you can take care of ascetics and other spiritual seekers, do their darshan and practice pratikraman and samayik, do penance and everything else to help you remain in a positive environment. You will not attain moksha by merely doing good deeds. You will bind punya with good deeds and you will have material happiness and comfort in your next life as a result of your good deeds. But if it is liberation that you seek, then do as the Lord has said. The Lord has said “Gnan Kriya Byamu Moksha”. There rituals of samayik and pratikraman are not rituals of Real Knowledge. Moksha cannot be attained through the action of knowledge. Action of Knowledge means to see and to observe. If you remain the knower and the observer, you are in moksha. To know is the action of knowledge and to see or observe is the action of darshan (darshan kriya).