Mukti or moksha is a Hindu concept where a human being gains freedom from the cycle of birth and death. Once a human being attains self-realization, they attain mukti, they are free from the world.
Many Hindus recite Lord Shiv’s Maha Mrityunjay Mantra. Mrityunjay means victory over death. This mantra is recited by many when a loved one is seriously ill. However, the Mrityunjay mantra is really a mantra to achieve mukti. It prays to the lord to give us the ability to free ourselves from the entanglements of the material world as easily as a ripe vegetable falls of the plant.
Hindus also believe that by taking a dip in the holy river Ganga they will be absolved of their sins, thus preparing them from mukti.
A human being can gain mukti through only one entity — no one else. Do you know who that entity is? That entity is the human being themselves. Any person can achieve freedom from the life and death cycle only if they so choose. God cannot give them freedom, they must choose freedom for themselves, only then will they gain mukti.
Let us illustrate this with an analogy. Many of us went to school for years and now we are grown up. If I took you back to your school, it might be interesting to reminisce, but you are not going to spend a lot of time over there. You no longer need anything from the school. The school has outlived its utility to you. You have gained mukti from the school — you are free from the school (free may not be the best word, you have no need for the school anymore.)
Similarly, when a human being has no need for the material world anymore, they gain mukti from it. When does that happen? When a person has no more desires for the material world. Once the desires dissolve, that person has no interest in the material world, and that person will not take a subsequent birth. They will be free of the cycle of birth and death.
To gain freedom from something does not mean running away from it. Then you are not free, you are caught in the opposite realm. Freedom is when you are unaffected.
Say, at one point, you used to drink a lot of soda. Then you outgrew it and now if someone offers you a soda, you drink it, you do not run away from it, but you no longer hunger for it. You do not miss soda if it is not available, you do not think about soda. You are okay if it is there; you are okay if it is not there. That is mukti.
Every human being is the only one who can control his or her mukti. We all have a choice. If we like the material world we will come back, and the cycle will continue. The day our desires evaporate, so will the need to come back to the material world.
This is a Hindi Video. If you would like an English rendition, please let us know.
“At your core, you are peace. Be who you are. Be peace.”
— Ravi Kathuria, Author, “Happy Soul. Hungry Mind.”
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