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Moksha: Hard or Easy?

Terese

Terese

Mangalam Pundarikakshah
Staff member
Premium Member
Many times i have heard that attaining moksha is very hard, that even becoming a sadhu or acharya it would take a few lifetimes to be rid of our mortal coil. However other times I have heard that attaining moksha is relatively easy, like just chanting Lord Hari's name, or being in the vicinity of virtuous acharyas, or even thinking about Lord Krishna at the time of your death. What is really the case?
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
People say many things, Theresa, like 'instant moksha' if you swim in the Ganges, or say the Lord's name on your last breath. Of course there is no way of knowing for sure, unless perhaps if we're already there. Since it is guaranteed (at least in most versions of SD) I tend to think it depends a lot on where you are in the progression. A 2 year old finds driving a car hard, whereas a professional driver finds it easy. So what's really the case varies by individual.
 
StarryNightshade

StarryNightshade

Spiritually confused Jew
Premium Member
Prettty much what @Vinayaka said. I think it depends on one's progression or place in their practice. Right now at ripe old age of 25, Moksha looks very far away for me; and it very well may be. However, as time goes on in a more beneficial sadhana, things could potentially get easier.
 
निताइ dasa

निताइ dasa

Nitai's servant's servant
And when has age or sadhana been a qualifier for the Lord's Mercy? Where was Prahlad's or Dhruva's age? Where was Ahilya's Sadhana? One second is all it takes.

"viraja mana kinha, prabhu kahe cinha, raghupati kripa bhagati payi"

"She (Ahilya) calmed her mind, and recognized her Lord (Rama) and at that moment by the Lord's Grace she attained Bhakti"
 
Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Truth is One, many are the Names
Premium Member
Terese said:
Many times i have heard that attaining moksha is very hard, that even becoming a sadhu or acharya it would take a few lifetimes to be rid of our mortal coil. However other times I have heard that attaining moksha is relatively easy, like just chanting Lord Hari's name, or being in the vicinity of virtuous acharyas, or even thinking about Lord Krishna at the time of your death. What is really the case?
Click to expand...

Ha ha ha, Terese. I just love our guys here. We have a "yes, it's hard but not (if)" and then we have a "it's easy, plain and simple, I did it" (Aupji, it feels like one of my legs is getting pulled longer than the other :eek:) and then we have an excellent equivocation from Vinayakaji--although I would like to remind him of the sinful Ajamila and his rescue (moksha!) merely by chanting the name of his son, Narayana, on his deathbed. For Ajamila, it was only coincidentally the name of God. For God, it didn't matter. He kept His promise--if you have My Name on your lips when you exit your body, it's game over. Sruti and Guruji say the same thing, so that is why I beg for the grace--accompanied by my effort, the sadhana--to have the Name in my awareness 24/7. Anybody who can get this project of Self-realization accomplished without mantra should be asked his method. Personally, I don't think it's possible in Kali yuga, so if you didn't come in enlightened, pray most earnestly to be led to your Guru who will prepare and then gift you with that Gift Without Parallel (a Holy Name to cling to). Just MO.

But back to your question, Tereseji. You may actually already have the "answer." If you have not attained moksha (you would know and you're just testing us to see if we do? :p or if you're still in the body, it's called jivanmukti--freed while living), then ask yourself how's your life so far? Do you consider it "hard" or "easy"? You and every single entity out there is on the path to moksha (V'ji did say that, too).

I'd like to proffer a different way to tackle this. But first, and you'll hear me say this time and again, whenever one's mind comes up with an either/or problem for you (easy/hard; hot/cold; happy/miserable), you can KNOW your mind is cavorting (and taking the real "you" along with it) in the realm of the dualities, maya. Beware. Beware the words which color your experiences; a mind grabs a hold and then swings us between opposites, weighing, deciding (how easy is it? how hard? how good? how bad?), creating more questions. God, the Self, the Truth will NOT be known by one's mind (agitated by questions). Impossible. That is THE gift of mantra (maan--mind, tra--beyond); it stills the mind so that--like the sun in a rippleless pond--OneTruth can be reflected in it, so that which now appears as "many" is revealed as it is: One without a second, One and nothing but One.

I was taught to gradually reduce my desires--first for things of a material nature, then even those of a more subtle nature (even those we consider as "good"), coalescing all my desires into one--for moksha. Then I am to surrender even that desire. When there are no more desires, none, nor karmas to be "worked out" (by whatever method) in any sharira, that is moksha then and there.

And never underestimate the miracle of God's grace. That is Nitaiji's point and very well taken.

EDIT: blah, blah, blah. What I'm trying to say is the perception of "easy" and "hard" happens somewhere within "you."
 
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Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Truth is One, many are the Names
Premium Member
Darpana. Mirror, mirror... we ALL work to purify ourselves so that you may see your Self reflected (Satchitananda) in us, Terese. All praise to our Beloved God who gave you the discrimination to seek and to recognize the Truth when you hear it. This is shravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasanam--the triple techniques operating in you. First one hears. Then one reflects on what was heard. Then, in deep meditation, that Truth reveals itSelf.

More info re darpana that I was taught and quote from emails with a devotee:

The Upanishads teach we cannot “see” God except through four mirrors called “darpana.” And when I toted it up, three of them are actually physically manifest in bhu loka itself (earth plane). The fourth, which I’ll dispatch first, is a function of buddhi (intellect) called viveka darpana—the light of discrimination. Not just discrimination, but the light which provides the ability to distinguish, to discriminate. It is a function of the Cosmic Intelligence.

Again, this happens in the intellect, not in the mind. Because ego’s residence is very, very close to intellect’s residence in this City of Nine Gates, it can be difficult for a novitiate to eliminate all cross-talk and/or doubt whether something is cross-talk (or the real McCoy), especially in Kali Yuga, the darkest of the ages, fullest of ignorance.

The other three are vishwa darpana—the universe as mirror (the whoosh of God experience inspired by seeing some splendor of Mother Nature, for example); murti darpana—symbol as mirror (cross, statue, Dharmachakra, photo, teddy bear (whatever twangs and melts your heart which isn’t an outside experience, but an inside one brought on by one of the five senses making contact with an object, a symbol; then the mind runs with it if you’ve trained it to do so OR if that object of one’s sense faculties was present when you had a God experience, it’s even easier to make the connection); and guru darpana, the mirror provided by a pure being.

EDIT: Ah, "Post Reply" is so easy to click before its time. I feel the need to say I've had some very powerful experiences with darpana. All of them, now that I reflect on it. I am not just therefore, quoting the teachings in this one. I'll always try to distinguish.
​
 
K

kalyan

Aspiring Sri VaishNava
last 1 minute of life is very important, whatever you think of it in that last 1 minute, you would become that.....you have to know the story of king called jada bharatha....but how do you know the last 1 minute of your life and how to think of what we need to think when our senses,manas are down? Anthima smriti is very important in Sri VaishNavism for we don't know which moment is our last, it is always said that be prepared.scary but true, all these people that we see in the news, people who have made many plans, even children dying in the accidents, one cannot know what his/her next moment is.......
 
K

kalyan

Aspiring Sri VaishNava
StarryNightshade said:
Prettty much what @Vinayaka said. I think it depends on one's progression or place in their practice. Right now at ripe old age of 25, Moksha looks very far away for me; and it very well may be. However, as time goes on in a more beneficial sadhana, things could potentially get easier.
Click to expand...
you cannot predict the next moment of your life, for we see many people dying in the accidents every day.....scary but true and be prepared for the final departure
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Sw. Vandana Jyothi said:
Vinayakaji--although I would like to remind him of the sinful Ajamila and his rescue (moksha!) merely by chanting the name of his son, Narayana, on his deathbed.
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Respected Swamini, I am unfamiliar with most stories. I am not well read at all. The only one pertinent to this topic is the one where two devotees approach the Guru, each asking how long they, as individuals, can expect to wait until moksha. The Guru just turns the question back on them, saying, "What do you think?" Predictably one figures he's very close whilst the other figures he's got thousands of lifetimes to go. Of course the Guru grants it to the humble one. I personally don't view this story as literal, but just a metaphorical lesson on the value of humility.

Theresa, in my sampradaya, the take would be not to focus on moksha at all, but on how we're behaving in the moment, fully understanding that moksha will come in due time, once all karmas have been resolved. It's like the temple builder or artist who focuses on the end result so much that he/she doesn't do any work towards that end. We all have to do the required work.
 
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Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Sw. Vandana Jyothi

Truth is One, many are the Names
Premium Member
kalyan said:
last 1 minute of life is very important, whatever you think of it in that last 1 minute, you would become that.....you have to know the story of king called jada bharatha....but how do you know the last 1 minute of your life and how to think of what we need to think when our senses,manas are down? Anthima smriti is very important in Sri VaishNavism for we don't know which moment is our last, it is always said that be prepared.scary but true, all these people that we see in the news, people who have made many plans, even children dying in the accidents, one cannot know what his/her next moment is.......
Click to expand...

Yes, Kalyanji, so true! God's Name will not come at the time of death unless one makes it one's practice during what we call "life."
 
निताइ dasa

निताइ dasa

Nitai's servant's servant
kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-pańkaja-pañjarāntam
adyaiva me viśatu mānasa-rāja-haḿsaḥ
prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaḿ kutas te

"O Krsna! Please allow my mind to immediately yield to Your lotus flower-like feet, just as the flamingo enters into the labyrinth of the lotus flowers' stems. When at the moment of my last breath my throat becomes constricted by the action of the bodily humors air, bile, and phlegm, how will I be able to remember You?"

This was one of Prabhupada's favourite verses, written by Alwar Kulashekhar
 
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