Liberation (Moksha)

In this excerpt from the Essence of the Supreme Reality, Abhinavagupta's Paramarthasara Swami Lakshmanjoo explains why in order to attain Moksha (Liberation) the starting point of the journey is the ending point.

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PS DVD 3 (00:52:47)

मोक्षस्य नैव किंचिद्

धामास्ति, न चापिगमनमन्यत्र ।

अज्ञानग्रन्थिभिदा

स्वशक्त्यभिव्यक्तता मोक्षः ॥६०॥

mokṣasya naiva kiṁcid

dhāmāsti, na cāpi-gamanam-anyatra /

ajñāna-granthi-bhidā

sva-śakty-abhivyaktatā mokṣaḥ //60//

Actually, the liberation from repeated births and deaths and being centered in the Parabhairava state, that Parabhairava state is called “mokṣa”. And that mokṣa is not somewhere in the uppermost ākāśa (space), in śāntātīta kalā. Naiva kiṁcid dhāmāsti, it has not some particular place where one reaches and gets liberated from repeated births and deaths.

Na cāpi gamanamanyatra, for mokṣa, for attaining mokṣa, you have not to tread from the state where you are already existing in the field of māyā. You are existing in the field of māyā and you have to get elevated by and by, by and by, by abhyasa.140 But you have not to tread. There is no journey to be covered.

The starting point of the journey is the ending point of the journey!

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140 Contemplative practice.

Source: Essence of the Supreme Reality, Abhinavagupta's Paramarthasara