Verse 2.2.175

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 2.2.175:

सोऽशेष-दुःख-ध्वंसो वाविद्या-कर्म-क्षयोऽथवा ।
माया-कृतान्यथा-रूप-त्यागात् स्वानुभवोऽपि वा ॥ १७५ ॥

so'śeṣa-duḥkha-dhvaṃso vāvidyā-karma-kṣayo'thavā |
māyā-kṛtānyathā-rūpa-tyāgāt svānubhavo'pi vā || 175 ||

saḥ–it; aśeṣa-duḥkha–all distress; dhvaṃsaḥ–nullifying; vā–or; avidyā–in ignorance; karma–of activities; kṣayaḥ–destruction; atha vā–or; māyā–by the illusory potency; kṛta–done; anyathā–other; rūpa–forms; tyāgāt–through giving up; sva-anubhavaḥ–realizing oneself; api–indeed; vā–or.

In the opinion of some, liberation is the complete vanquishing of all types of suffering. Others believe it is the destruction of ignorance and termination of action and reaction (karma). And yet others accept it as escape from the illusion of Māyā, in which one mistakes one object for another, upon which one experiences the true self as a conscious reality. However, there is no happiness in any of these ideas of liberation.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

In this verse beginning with saḥ, the bhaktiśāstras explain the different definitions of mokṣa, or mukti, given by advocates of liberation.

They say, “According to the school of nyāya (logic), liberation is the total eradiction of the twenty-one types of suffering. In their view, ‘ātyantikī duḥkha nirvṛttiḥ muktiḥ–Mukti, or liberation, is the complete cessation of distress.’ According to philosophers who accept only one portion of the Vedas (vaidāntika eka-deśa-vāda), ‘Mokṣa is the cessation of both ignorance (avidyā) and fruitive work (karma).’ The opinions of the Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsaka, and Sāṅkhya philosophers have not been presented here because the primary characteristics of mokṣa that they ascertain are quite insignificant and in all regards too incomplete. On the other hand, in the opinion of the propounders of vivarta-vāda (the Māyāvāda theory of the illusion of the Supreme), who are prominent among Vedic scholars, ‘Material existence–the cycle of birth and death–is generated by the illusory energy Māyā. One achieves liberation when one rejects the false distinction caused by Māyā and realizes his own spiritual nature (that is, who one realizes himself as Brahman).’

“Māyāvādīs sometimes quote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.10.6): ‘muktir hitvānyathā-rūpaṃ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ–When the soul gives up his other identities–the false forms (ānyathā-rūpa) generated by Māyā–and becomes established in his pure, constitutional identity (svarūpa), that is mukti.’”