1. The Threefold Pains

Worldly life is full of sorrows and sufferings. We daily pray to Parabrahman to prevent us from these three kinds of pains in our rites and rituals.

“ādhyātmika-ādhibhautika-ādhidaivika-trividhatāpa-upaśamana-artham”^[1]

Generally, we suffer from these threefold miseries:

1. ādhyātmika (intrinsic),
2. ādhibhautika (extrinsic), and
3. ādhidaivika (superhuman).

The first ādhyātmika is mental agitation caused by emotions and passions. The second type of pain i.e. ādhibhautika is caused by beasts, men, birds, alligators, reptiles, deer, etc. ādhibhautika pain is triggered by fourfold living beings, viz., jarāyuja (viviparous), aṇḍaja (oviparous), svedaja (born of sweat) and udbhijja (born of soil). The third type of pain is produced by supernatural agencies, like demons, ghosts, and planets. It is also caused by the elements of storm, rain, heat, cold, thunderbolt, etc. There are, in fact, many pleasures of life. Nevertheless, many more are the pains and sufferings of life and all living beings are subject to them. The pleasures are momentary, but the pains are permanent. Though it is possible for any individual being to avoid all pains, yet it is not possible for them to avoid decay and death.

The Gītā insists in order to eradicate the threefold miseries of a spiritual seeker and bringing happiness in life.

prasāde sarvaduḥkhānāṃ hānirasyopajāyate |
prasannacetaso hyāśu buddhiḥ paryavatiṣṭhate || Bhagavad-Gītā 2/65 ||

“The effects of having won the grace or serenity (prasādam) of the brahmasvarūp Guru, Kṛṣṇā says that all kinds of sorrows viz. ādhyātmika, ādhidaivika, and ādhibhautika, are annihilated in the seeker when he gets prasādam. Further, the seeker with a prasanna citta i.e. purified antaḥ-kāraṇa gets firmly established and retains steady buddhi in all circumstances, just like space. The basic idea for happiness that the buddhi becomes immutable by (being established in) the form of ātman.”

All the schools of the Indian Vedāntic system have also agreed that there are sorrows and sufferings in human life. That is why they put much emphasis on 333

developing a configure or constructing a procedure by which human beings can completely overcome suffering and sorrows. According to them, the sufferings and sorrows of men are due to ignorance or avidyā regarding the self. Ignorance is the leading cause of all sufferings and sorrows. It is accepted by all the schools that man can conquer ignorance and attain total freedom. Total freedom is asserted in Indian philosophy as mokṣa or liberation.^[2]

As Rādhākṛṣṇana says,

“Spiritual experience is the foundation of India's rich cultural history.”^[3]

This statement indicates that philosophy and studies of spiritual texts should result in a blissful experience.

In its broad meaning, Indian philosophy discovers,

“Liberation means freedom from all ties, desires, holds, limitations, and death. Although we may think that we are free and live in a free world, physically and mentally, we are subject to many limitations and tied relationships, which do not let us live our lives freely or experience the freedom of liberated souls.”

Freedom from worldly misery is the most important thing in emancipation.

“Many imperceptible chains hold us in the colossal jail of the world. Everyone who lives here is a prisoner of their own thoughts and actions. Our fears, anxieties, feelings, emotions, thoughts, cares, concerns, desires, relationships, goals, and natural limitations hold us back. They come in the way of our ability and our happiness to live freely and blissfully. They keep us restricted to our little worlds.”

Therefore, dharmic bondage is not really bondage but the means to liberation.

“To achieve liberation, we have to break through the walls that separate us from the ultimate bliss. We have to conquer everything that holds us back or holds us in chains. How can there be freedom if we are conditioned to live like slaves to our own fears and desires? To be free from the bonds of the earth, we have to learn to live freely, both mentally and physically.”^[4]

In this short discussion, I want to focus on some analysis of the philosophical explanation of the concept of mokṣa from an ethical and practical point of view.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Śrutiprakāśadāsa Sādhu, Śrī Mahāpūjā, Svāminārāyaṇa Akṣarapīṭha, Ahmedabd, May 2011, p.5

[2]:

Brahmadarśanadāsa Sādhu, Bhāratīya Darśanonī Rūparekhā-1, Svāminārāyaṇa Akṣarapīṭha, Ahmedabad, 2007,

[3]:

Indian Philosophy-1, p.41

[4]:

Indian Philosophy-1, p.237