How can we achieve liberation?

‘Liberation’ is freedom from misery.

What is misery?

Misery is non-fulfillment of desires.

What are desires?

Desires are the conditions for happiness.

What is happiness?

Happiness is a temporary state where thoughts of the next desire have still not come into existence. It means we are happy in that small window of this state when our mind is resting.

What is mind?

It is a software that produces thoughts ceaselessly. These thoughts deal with desires that may bring security, comfort, ego-trips, and pleasure to the physical body.

Let us see the relevance of these thoughts now.

Security: We shouldn't die. This is the first security we seek. But the paradox is that, ‘no one has escaped the throes of death till today’.?Our desire, ‘not-to-die’ is an illusion?and it can never be fulfilled. However, we never abort our efforts.?Hospitals are death-postponing institutions. If we genuinely internalize the inevitability of death, we make progress towards liberation, and we can enjoy our stay here on earth with great zest and mirth. Life on earth becomes a paid vacation!

Comfort: The summum bonum of human life is to provide physical and mental comforts to the body. The purpose of science is to provide objects that enhance these comforts. The physical body is designed to perform physical labor for its health and existence. Science is working day and night to create ease of living, comfortable lives with little labor. Ordinary people today enjoy much more than the kings of the past. Kings of the 16th century or the 17th century never had televisions, aero planes, or elevators. A common man enjoys these gadgets these days. This has increased the craze for more and more comforts. Our craze is fulfilled at the cost of our physical and mental health. If we develop the discriminative knowledge that addiction to physical comforts takes us away from the real questions of our life; ‘who are we? Why are we born?’; then we make progress towards liberation.

Ego-trip: This is the most dangerous greed of human beings. When all physical comforts are met, we embark on the ego-trip. We want to show off our possessions before others and gain the buoyancy of an ego-kick. That is the reason why we spend on precious stones, gold, and platinum. This is ridiculous if we think wisely. We cannot eat fried rings made of gold if there is no food. Gold and other precious metals are meant to give us an ego-boost and false sense of security. Most rich people's earnings are spent on expensive homes, beach resorts, cars, aero planes etc. They are totally superfluous as far as living is concerned. When we understand that it is possible to live comfortably without these expensive possessions, and realize that health is more important than these things, we make progress towards liberation.

Pleasure:?We have the tendency to get addicted to all those activities that give us pleasure. It may be gambling, eating, or our relations with our spouses and children. When we understand that all these pleasures are temporary and they have a date of termination, we realize that all pleasures are fleeting. They come and go but never come and stay with us. What is the use of something that does not stay with us??Pleasure is the passion to repeat the acts of memorized events that gave you a temporary relief from misery and which you mistook as happiness !?Pleasures cease when health fails and old age is a sure destination where all pleasures tease you with the memories of the past and make you sick with your inability to repeat them. If we realize that pleasures belong to the body and mind and not to 'me', who is witness to these pleasures, we make progress towards liberation.

What is liberation?

Liberation is a state where desires do not haunt us. Everything around us is changing and changing fast. We generally fail to appreciate the impermanency of the world of objects. This is an illusion. If we shift our attention from this illusion of the constantly changing world of objects to “I”, the backdrop of everything, the witness, the consciousness, then this is liberation.

Liberation is to break free of the past that generates misery though it is gone and buried. Liberation is to drop the imagination of the future that is always accompanied by a package of fear.

The present alone is real. Without the contamination of the past and the future , if we live in the present, satisfied with whatever we have, happy if we get more, but not unhappy if there is some deficiency, it is called liberation.

Liberation is the state of pure being. We are present in the ocean of Consciousness-Existence like a fish in the deep sea, not concerned about the waves, breakers, froth or bubbles of the surface!