The Nature of Freedom or Liberation

Attaining freedom from miseries is liberation. Liberation is both permanent and temporary. When the liberation is such that the bondage of sorrow is never felt it is permanent liberation. Is bondage also permanent, if we are to speak of liberation as permanent? No! bondages are not permanent, they are temporary. If bondages were permanent there would not have been any possibility of liberation from them. Now the question is that if bondages are temporary and not permanent, liberation would also be temporary. Bondages, however, are temporary, but liberation is permanent.

Some say that being bereft of feeling and movement, like a stone, is liberation. Some think that being one with the ocean as the drop, is liberation. Others say that flame uniting with flame is liberation. Some believe that one who ascends high is liberated. But none of these is true. Mental attachment is bondage, and detachment is liberation. It is also called sacrifice or renunciation. Renunciation and detachment can also be called liberation. The following is the difference between these two which is also found in a saint, and in one who has renounced every thing. Those who see attachment in detachment and detachment in attachment are called saints. Such is their liberation. Their system goes beyond the levels of non-attachment and attachment i.e. the levels of attachment and detachment, and reaches pure existence. This is the positive way. He who renounces everything is a detached person. He goes beyond the levels of total detachment towards attachment and this is the way of 'Not this, Not this' — Neti, Neti. The desired goal and ideal of both is one and the same. One is quite clear about it whereas the other is devoid of clear vision. But even that is not total negation. How can there be the negation of negation? It appears to be mere jugglery of meaningless words. Internally he also aims at attachment, and there is no other go but to accept this attachment. Negation or Renunciation is the way of pure knowledge, and attachment is the way of love and devotion, which is purely positive.