If the finite can’t become the infinite, then what is liberation?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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if it is a finite cannot become infinite then when they talk about moksha or nirvana what exactly is that? ok see God has multiple levels of manifestation just like if you consider this light there is one localized source of light but from there from that bulb light is radiating outward so similarly God has multiple manifestations there is a personal manifestation who is called as Bhagawan and then from him there is an effulgence coming that is called the Brahman or the Brahmachoti so now both of them are at one level non-different because it is one God who is manifesting both ways so then so those who are in the spiritual traditions across the world broadly speaking there are personalists and impersonalists so those who are personalists are attracted to the personal manifestation of the Bhagawan to the light source the impersonalists are attracted to the light now quite often they are attracted to the light because they don’t know anything about the source of light in the Isha Upanishad there is a prayer my dear lord your true face is covered by a blinding brightness so normally we think of darkness as blinding but sometimes brightness can also be blind like if you are travelling in a car on a road and the opposite driver suddenly there is a glare you can’t see anything so we come out of the darkness of the material arena but then in the material world we are blinded by darkness when we come out of the darkness we can be blinded by brightness so in one sense the idea that there is a light and I want to merge into that light I want to become one with that light that is a natural universal first step in spiritual realization and at that time the focus primarily is not so much in what is the nature of the ultimate reality it is thus that this reality is full of misery and I want to get out of it that is the whole idea of Moksha means what? I am bound here and to be bound is miserable I want to get out of it so what to do after that that is not very well thought out so do you suppose somebody is having arthritis, they are sick and they are in pain and every movement of the body causes pain I just move my hand I move my head I just call out constant pain at that time the first desire would be just want to stop pain that is stop stop moving and be free from pain and that is true but if you stop if you can somehow stop moving and you can become free from pain and then after that you will want to start moving again you don’t want to just stay motionless all the time so here there is a misdiagnosis it is an understandable misdiagnosis the cause of the pain is not the motion the cause of the pain is the weakness it appears to us that the motion is causing the pain but it is not motion it is the disease causing the pain similarly some people have this idea that the form and personality all these are the cause of pain that when we get attracted to forms we get deluded and afterwards the forms lose their attractiveness and then we are entangled there are different kind of people each of them have their attractiveness but each of them have their limitations also so we feel I just don’t want any relationship I don’t want any form, I don’t want any personality I just want to be peaceful and those who are in a sense their conception of spirituality is more recoiling from the material reality not so much propelling towards the spiritual reality from basic positive attraction so their idea is they just want to be liberated from the spirit now that is also possible but the soul by nature is relational we want relationships and that’s why going with that impersonal effulgence to become another particle of light that is not a very palatable or sustainable sustainable prospect for the soul now liberation is definitely possible and in bhakti also there is liberation there are two kinds of liberation you could say, this is often when I write in seminars on de-addiction I talk about this there is freedom from and there is freedom for what you are free from and what you are free for so many times when somebody becomes an addict, they become alcoholic or they become drug addicts their whole focus goes on I want to give this up I want to be free from this but that is a very negative focus more important than giving up that habit is creating a life worth living if you were free from this, what will you do and you start doing that as much as you can so the focus is not on what we are free from but what we are free for so in bhakti we focus on being free for loving Krishna for serving Krishna for delighting in our relationship with Krishna and then we understand lust, anger greed, all these they drag us away from Krishna and that’s why we don’t want so a devotee is not so much interested in liberation for liberation sake a devotee is interested in liberation for love sake because we will be liberated so that we can love Krishna so that is considered to be the highest level of liberation because there our focus is not just on our own peace but it is on our lord’s pleasure, it is a more selfless understanding of spiritual perfection thank you very much