Concept of liberation in other philosophical systems

The Buddhists declare that the ultimate freedom is the cessation of all kinds of knowledge along with impressions, tendencies, and longings.^[1] This complete cessation is nirvāṇa (Pala - nibbāna).^[2] According to the Sāṃkhyas, lack of discriminative knowledge is the cause of all sufferings. The discriminative knowledge, in the final stage, delivers one from all kinds of pain.^[3] For them liberation is the disassociation of the self (puruṣa) from the psychical states with which it finds itself in association.^[4] It is a state of aloofness (kaivalya). The Yoga school is also of the same view. They say that avidya is the cause of all sufferings^[5] and the discriminative knowledge is the means to attain freedom.^[6] They also suggest the yoga path which consists of eight stages.^[7]

In the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika system the final end of transmigratory existence is called niśreyasa or apavarga. Kaṇāda says dharma is what accomplishes worldly happiness (abhyudaya) and liberation (niśreyasa).^[8] He also considers that negative actions (nivṛtti) lead to liberation. The elimination of desires, merits, and demerits, and the absolute negation of pain are the ends of nivṛtti and this can be made possible by the true knowledge of the six categories (reality).^[9] According to Srīdharacārya, liberation is the total annihilation of all the nine qualities of the self namely, consciousness, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, volition, merit, demerit, and impression. Thus, liberation is the existence of the self in its essential nature marked by the destruction of all its qualities.^[10] In Nyāya-sūtra freedom is defined as the absolute deliverance from suffering (duḥkha).^[11] It can be attained through the elimination of pain, birth, activity, faults (doṣa), and false knowledge in the reverse order^[12] by the acquisition of the true knowledge. Vātsyāyana has conceived the concept of apavarga in terms of the Brahman and the bliss and it consists in the absence of pain.^[13] In conformity with the Vaiśeṣikas, Jayantabhaṭṭa says that liberation is the complete extinction of the nine specific qualities of the self.^[14] Udayana defines it as a state of aloofness (kaivalya) to be attained through discursive knowledge and devotional attitude. The bondage and the resulting suffering are due to false knowledge. Rebirth and sorrow disappear when the urges to act dies down.^[15] Thus, one attains ultimate freedom. However, in spite of the slight differences, the Nyāya- Vaiśeṣika thinkers unanimously hold that liberation is neither pure knowledge nor pure bliss; it is purely a painless state and the way to liberation is the elimination of negative states.

In Pūrvamīmāṃsa “Jaimini and Śavara enjoin the performance of duties as a means to attain happiness in heaven. They do not attach much importance to the conception of liberation”.^[16] Jaimini says that happiness is the only goal of life.^[17] Kumārila conceives liberation as a negative character, and hence eternal. It is the negation of all experiences of cognition, pleasure pain, desire aversion, impression, merit, and demerit.^[18] Liberation is because of the absolute irradiation of merits and demerits. According to the Prabhākaras, freedom is the state of the self remaining in its own nature consequent to the destruction of the specific qualities of the self.^[19] Thus liberation, in Pūrvamīmāṃsa, is a state of complete extermination of pain^[20] . The peculiarity of freedom in the Pūrvamīmāṃsa discipline is that it emphasizes karma rather than jñāna.

Advaita Vedānta recognizes that the individual self (jīva) is none other than the Brahman, but identical in nature (jīvo braḥmaiva nāparaḥ). One is deluded in the world of māya due to avidyā which has no beginning. Right knowledge at one stroke abolishes the sense of finitude together with the sense of duality.^[21] Ontologically, freedom is the identification of oneself with the transcendental consciousness or the Brahman which is “pure Bliss”.^[22]

Jainism recognizes deliverance as the freedom of the self from kārmic matter which covers its inherent qualities.^[23]

If we look at the various view points described above, it can be understood that Caraka agrees with all the philosophical systems on the basic issues regarding freedom. He recognizes the phenomenal life as one of suffering and freedom from suffering as the goal of spiritual endeavour. He is of the opinion that the vision or insight into the reality of things will dispel one's illusion and ignorance and thus one can be liberated eternally and irrecoverably from all negative aspects of phenomenal existence by psycho-somatic spiritual endeavour.

Liberation has two aspects: (1) the liberating process and (2) the state of being liberated. The liberating process is a negative one which involves the eradication of suffering, and being liberated, by contrast, is a positive state. Emphasizing the negative phase of eradication, Caraka calls it by the epithets nirvāṇa and nivṛtti which echo the Buddhists, the Sāṃkhya-Yoga and the Nyāya- Vaiśeṣika. At the same time, with regard to the final state of freedom he agrees with the Vedāntins who hold that freedom is the attainment of oneness with the Brahman.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

savāsanāsamucchedo jñānoparama ityeke, Nyāyakandalī, Praśastapādabhāṣya., p. 6; Nyāyamañjarī of Jayantabhaṭṭa., Part—II, 81.

[2]:

The word nirvāṇa litterally means “extinguishing”, as in the extinguishing of a flame and it signifies soteriologically the complete extinguishing of greed, hatred and fundamentally delusion, the forces which power saṃsāra. For details see BT, p. 47 - 48.

[3]:

KFL, p. 265.

[4]:

ACJ, p. 4.

[5]:

tasya heturavidyā, Yogasūtra, Su Sūtra - sthāna, II. 24 viparyayajñāna-saṃskārasahitā vidyeti sūtrārthaḥ, Pātañjalarahasya on ibid., YD, p. 233.

[6]:

vivekakhyātiraviplava hānopāyaḥ, Yogasūtra, Su Sūtra - sthāna, II. 26. sattvapuruṣānyatāpratyayo vivekakhyātiḥ, Vyāsabhāṣya on ibid, YD, p. 236.

[7]:

The eight stages are yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhra dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi. Yogasūtra, Su Sūtra - sthāna, II. 29.

[8]:

Vaiśeṣikadarśana., I. i. 2,

[9]:

Vaiśeṣikadarśana., I. i. 4.

[10]:

“samastātmaviśeṣaguṇocchedopalakṣitā svarūpasthitireva”, Nyāyakandalī, Praśastapādabhāṣya., p. 692.

[11]:

tadatyantavimokṣo'pavargaḥ, Nyāyasūtra., I. i. 22.

[12]:

duḥkhajanmapravṛttidoṣamithyājñānānāṃ uttarottarapāye tadanantarapāyadapavrgagaḥ, Nyāyasūtra., I. i. 2.

[13]:

tadabhayamajaramamṛtyupadaṃ braḥmakṣemaprāptiriti, Vātsyāyana on Nyāyasūtra., I. i. 22, Nyāya-Bhāṣya of Vātsyāyana., p.39.

[14]:

navānāṃ ātmaguṇānāṃ buddhisukhaduḥkheccadveṣa-prayatnadharmādharmasaṃskārāṇāṃ nirmūlocchedo'pavarga ituktaṃ bhavati, Nyāyamañjarī of Jayantabhaṭṭa., Part—II, 77.

[15]:

KFL, p.264.

[16]:

JNS, Vol. I, p. 879.

[17]:

yasmin prītiḥ puruṣasya tasya lipsārthalakṣaṇā vibhaktatvāt. M. Su, IV. i. 2.

[18]:

na hyabhāvātmakaṃ muktvā mokṣanityatvakāraṇaṃ, Slokavartika., cited in JNS, Vol. I, p. 879 (F. Notes).

[19]:

sakalabudhyādiviśeṣaguṇavilaye satyātmanaḥ svarūpāvasthānaṃ mokṣa iti prābhākaramataṃ, Mānameyodaya of Nārāyaṇa., p.214.

[20]:

EIP, p. 149.

[21]:

ACJ, p. 4.

[22]:

“Brahmaveda brahmaiva bhavati”, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad.., III. ii. 9. ānandātmakabrahmāvāptiśca mokṣaḥ, Vedāntaparibhāṣa of Dharmarāja Adhvarīndra., p. 204; nityaniratiśayasukhābhivyaktirityapare, Praśastapādabhāṣya., p. 8.

[23]:

ACJ, p. 4.