In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Moksha as freedom, emphasizing the diminishing of delusion rather than the pursuit of liberation as something to be acquired.

Moksha is a Sanskrit word that means freedom or being released from something. For example, when the Sun or Moon reappears after an eclipse, we can say that it has been freed from the embrace of Rahu or Ketu. Moksha is also one of the four Purusharthas, the four aims of human life: Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Dharma means following our personal path through life. Artha means obtaining the material resources necessary to follow that path. Kama means gratifying permissible desires so that those desires do not continually drag us back to fulfill them. Moksha is generally understood as becoming free from the necessity of reincarnating and taking birth again.

Vimalananda, however, liked to define Moksha in terms of the diminishing of Moha, or delusion. When delusion is diminished or destroyed, that is Moksha. From this perspective, it is important not to think of Moksha as something we are going to acquire or achieve at some future point. As soon as we make Moksha into a “thing,” we begin organizing ourselves around obtaining that thing, when Moksha is actually about being released from things. The focus should therefore be on removing delusions, especially the delusion that Moksha itself is something to possess.

Instead, the emphasis should be on living as equitably as possible, addressing our karmic obligations, our Rinanubandhanas, as well as we can, and keeping the company of good people. Adi Shankaracharya expresses a similar principle in the Bhaja Govindam through the importance of Satsanga. When we surround ourselves with people who are sincerely attempting to focus on reality, speak truthfully, and understand things as they are, we naturally become less interested in spending our free time among people absorbed in falsity and delusion.

When we stop surrounding ourselves with delusion, our own delusion begins to diminish because we are no longer continually absorbing it from others. As Dr. Svoboda puts it, “Birds of a feather flock together. You go to a different flock, you get different feathers.” As delusion diminishes, the mind becomes less Chanchala, less restless, scattered, doubtful, and unable to focus.

Adi Shankaracharya suggests that to qualify as Jivanmukta, liberated while still alive, the mind should no longer continually shift from one place to another. It should remain calm, focused, and equanimous. When that state becomes established while one is still living, then one can truly be said to be in a state of Moksha.