World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 294

the caramopaya for the attainment of mokña. The Guru, Guru-prasād (Guru's grace) and satsanga are the foundational requirements. It is exclusively in the company of the Akñara-Guru that a soul can successfully identify itself with Akñara-Brahman, attain akñarhood (i.e. similarity with Akñara Brahman) and become eligible to serve God in the state of mokña.
Bhakti fortified by dharma, jiana and vairagya is called 'Ekantiki Bhakti' or devotion par Excellence. śri Kḥñņa (in Bhagwat Géta Chap. XII) regards the jiani who loves Him as His very life, is dearer and closer than breath itself to Him. Therefore, Bhakti ought to be māhātmya-jïāna-yukta. Such a bhakti follows the logic of the heart and faith of the head under the guidance of the Guru. It is the consummation of disciplined devotion and intense unmotivated love for God and not its cancellation.
Mukti: Swāminārāyaṇa's gospel of love and equality before God gives a wide scope and full opportunity for the uplift of members of all classes, castes and sex. It is of great value in social history of India. The idea that God can be approached by all i.e. even by lowly and humblest, with equal rights and privileges in the path of spirituality, deserves great consideration and applause. The foundational principle of sarira-sariri relation helps a seeker in 'seeing God in all and all in God'.
A devotee who acquires akñara-hood in an embodied state during one's life-time. attains jivanmukti. Jivanmukti is a state in which one enjoys the highest bliss of God and the feeling of being free, here and now, and is a state of liberation from vāsanās and nescience. Such a jivanmukta at the perish of the body, attains videhmukti (liberation in a disembodied state). Between the emancipation on earth and the one after death, the difference is in terms of qualifications. A mukta is freed from the cycle of births and deaths, and through arcirādi path reaches the highest abode of God called Akñaradhām. God Himself comes to receive the soul to His abode. The liberated soul is now known as akñaramukta and at times akñara in a generic
sense.
The liberated soul is invested with a divine non-material (aprākḥta) body consisting of effulgence-consciousness-bliss as its essence. His form and figure resemble God. With this effulgent body he enjoys the supreme unalloyed bliss and serves Him eternally. Both in bondage and liberation jiva's individuality persists. In the state of bondage it is ego-centric nescienceprakhti dominated while in liberation it is egoless knowledge devotion dominated. The distinction between God and soul persists also in the state of liberation and hence the relationship of Master and servant continues. The mukta like a son serves his father lovingly and finds his eternal fulfillment in serving his Lord forever. The mukta lovingly gets absorbed in the Absolute, the fountain-head of unalloyed bliss. But absorption is not the annihilation of the self and its individuality. It is not a merger like that of light in the light
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