Moksha comes from a root meaning to loosen or let go, and the first question the tradition makes you ask is let go of what. Not the world, on most accounts. Not the body, necessarily. What is released is a binding — and every school gives a different answer about what was doing the binding, which is why they differ about what liberation is.
🔓 Moksha at a Glance
Root: muc — to loosen, release, let go
Released from: samsara — the cycle of birth and death
Not the same as: heaven, which is within samsara and temporary
Two kinds: jivanmukti (while living) and videhamukti (at death)
Other names: kaivalya, apavarga, nihshreyasa, nirvana
Final word of the Brahma Sutras: anāvṛittiḥ — no return
📑 Table of Contents
☁️ Why It Is Not Heaven
| Svarga — heaven | Moksha | |
|---|---|---|
| Obtained by | Merit — rites, giving, austerity | Knowledge, or grace, depending on the school |
| Duration | Until the merit is exhausted | Permanent |
| Return? | Yes — Gita 9.21 | No — Brahma Sutras 4.4.22 |
| Within samsara? | Yes; it is a location in the cosmology | No; it is the end of the structure |
Having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they enter the mortal world when their merit is exhausted. Thus, following the dharma of the three Vedas and desiring objects of desire, they obtain what comes and goes.
📌 Heaven is a better deal, not a different one
The Upanishads are consistently sharp about this. Heaven is more pleasant than earth and is subject to the same structure: it is entered, enjoyed, exhausted, and left. The Katha's Yama offers Nachiketa exactly this and Nachiketa refuses it, on the grounds that the pleasures of the gods wear out the senses, that all life is short, and that no wealth satisfies a man. That refusal is the beginning of the tradition's whole account of moksha.
🧍 Jivanmukti and Videhamukti
| Jivanmukti | Videhamukti | |
|---|---|---|
| When | While still in the body | At the falling away of the body |
| How it is possible | Sanchita destroyed and agami not generated, while prarabdha continues to run out | Prarabdha exhausted; the body falls |
| Image | The potter's wheel still spinning after the hand is removed | The wheel stopping |
| Accepted by | Advaita, emphatically; also the Yoga and Samkhya traditions | All schools |
| Disputed by | Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita generally hold liberation to be on leaving the body | — |
💡 What a jivanmukta is described as being like
The Gita's second chapter gives the tradition's most-quoted description in its portrait of the sthitaprajna — one of settled wisdom (2.54–2.72): undisturbed in sorrow and without craving in pleasure; withdrawing the senses as a tortoise draws in its limbs; and, in the passage's most striking line, what is night for all beings is waking for the one who is restrained, and what is waking for beings is night for the sage who sees. Not a different set of behaviours — a different orientation entirely.
🛤️ How It Is Sought
The four yogas are the tradition's standard classification of routes, and the Gita treats all four:
| Path | Its method | Suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Jnana yoga | Discrimination and enquiry — who am I?; the study of the mahavakyas under a teacher | The reflective |
| Bhakti yoga | Devotion, surrender, remembrance of the divine | The emotional |
| Karma yoga | Action performed without attachment to its fruit, as offering | The active |
| Raja / dhyana yoga | Discipline of the mind through the eight limbs; meditation | The contemplative |
🌟 What the Liberated State Is
Each school describes the condition differently, and the descriptions are not compatible:
| School | The liberated state |
|---|---|
| Advaita | Identity with Brahman, recognised. Nothing is attained; the individual was never separate. Sat-chit-ananda — being, consciousness, bliss — as what one is rather than what one has |
| Vishishtadvaita | The soul's own nature, obscured by karma, fully manifest; eternal service in Vaikuntha in the Lord's likeness, never identity |
| Dvaita | The Lord's presence, with the soul remaining itself and the five differences intact; bliss graded by intrinsic capacity |
| Samkhya / Yoga | Kaivalya — aloneness. Purusha stands in its own nature; prakriti, having been seen, ceases to perform |
| Nyaya | Absolute cessation of suffering — and, on the strict account, without consciousness or bliss, a position other schools attacked hard |
💡 The four degrees in the Vaishnava account
The Vaishnava traditions distinguish grades of attainment: salokya (dwelling in the Lord's world), samipya (nearness to him), sarupya (the same form as his) and sayujya (union). Gajendra is described as attaining sarupya. Some traditions rank sayujya highest; others, valuing the relationship, regard the preceding three as preferable — which is a striking disagreement about whether merging is the best outcome.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between moksha and heaven?
Heaven is obtained by merit, lasts until that merit is exhausted, and is followed by return — it is a location within samsara. Moksha is permanent and is the end of the structure. Gita 9.21: having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they enter the mortal world when their merit is exhausted. Heaven is a better deal, not a different one.
What is jivanmukti?
Liberation while still in the body. Possible because knowledge destroys sanchita and stops agami, while prarabdha — already in flight — continues to run out. The image is the potter's wheel still spinning after the hand is removed. Advaita accepts it emphatically, as do Yoga and Samkhya; Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita generally hold liberation to be on leaving the body.
Which of the four yogas leads to moksha?
The schools disagree, and not slightly. Advaita: knowledge alone liberates — liberation is not a result to be produced but an error to be removed, and action cannot remove an error. Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita: bhakti is the means, since what liberates is the Lord's grace, not the seeker's cognition. The Gita presents all four without ranking them cleanly — which is why every school can commentate it.
What are salokya, samipya, sarupya and sayujya?
The four grades in the Vaishnava traditions: salokya (dwelling in the Lord's world), samipya (nearness), sarupya (the same form) and sayujya (union). Gajendra attains sarupya. Some traditions rank sayujya highest; others, valuing the relationship, regard the preceding three as preferable — a striking disagreement about whether merging is the best outcome.
Does everyone eventually attain moksha?
The schools differ. Advaita: liberation is recognition of what is already the case, so nothing intrinsically bars anyone. Vishishtadvaita: prapatti is available to anyone, without qualification of birth, learning or condition. Dvaita: jiva-traividhya — some souls fit for liberation, some perpetually transmigrating, some fit for darkness — a position every other Vedanta school rejects.
🙏 Conclusion
Moksha is a release, and the schools differ about what was doing the holding — ignorance, karma, forgetfulness of dependence, or the entanglement of a witness with what it was watching. They agree on two things. It is not heaven, because heaven is entered, enjoyed, exhausted and left. And there is no return from it: the last line of the Brahma Sutras says so twice.