________________
CONTEMPORARY VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, CONTINUED
139
Freedom (moksha) from the bondage of illusion and ignorance is attained by knowledge of truth. It is not attained by any action, for whatever we do with desire is bondage leading to further illusion. It is not attained by negating the will, for the will is always free. It is not attained by love, for love involves distinction and so is just as illusory as hatred. It is not attained by mystical ecstasy (samadhi), which is a fruit of spiritual discipline and the goal of Yoga, for this is transient and has an objective content. It is not attained by a change of state (like awakening, which serves only as an imperfect analogy), for the self does not pass from one state to another; only the states (waking, dreaming, sleep, ecstasy) pass. It is attained only after meditation (dhyana) on the truth already contemplated intellectually, when a shift of attention, evoked by the Guru within us, makes us attend to what we always know directly. Just as the highest good is never really lost, so it is never really attained; it is lost only through ignorance and regained only through knowledge. Freedom is simply realization, through knowledge, of the non-dual character of the self.
The absolute reality (Brahman), knowledge of which is freedom, can be described in terms of its extrinsic properties, its intrinsic properties, and its essential nature. The extrinsic properties of Brahman are the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. These are properties of the self—not of God, as the realists maintain. The intelligent self is the cause of all things which appear—a free cause, the existence of which does not necessitate the existence of its effects. The effects are differentiated from it and from each other not in substance or in real being but
25 Moral freedom, however, is attained by counteracting desire by moral law (known from revelation, directly or indirectly through tradition, never by intuition or reason).
26 The individual who has attained freedom (the jivanmukta), to speak from the point of view of illusion, cannot be infallibly recognized by any behavioristic criterion, so we can never be sure that any given individual has attained freedom, but we can be sure that most individuals have not, since their behavior is incompatible with freedom, and in the case of certain personages, both historical and contemporary (not necessarily well known), there may be a strong presumption of freedom. Professor Malkani has not attained freedom; he says that his incorrigible devotion to thinking is the principal obstacle to his own spiritual progress.
