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april 2018yogajournal.com.au- moksha freedom
MOKSHA, OR LIBERATION, is widely
considered to be the pinnacle of the
purusharthas. In its broadest, most
elevated sense, moksha means achieving
nirvana, or the complete liberation
from the cycle of incarnation. “Moksha
is about getting off the wheel of samsara
[the cycle of suffering caused by birth,
death, and rebirth],” Kempton explains.
“You can be a good person who is living
a dharmic life, taking care of yourself
and your family, enjoying your family
life and your career, but all of that will
be ultimately unsatisfying unless you
are also doing the practices that can
lead to moksha.”
Yet moksha doesn’t have to be some
other place and time or some exalted
state to be reached only once and to the
exclusion of the human experience. “The
question with moksha is whether it is a
goal or whether it is your nature,” says
Brooks. In other words, do you become
free or are you born free?
One view is that moksha is a kind of
otherworldliness—the opposite of
dharma. The other argument is that
freedom is your nature, that it’s here and
now. Every time you look into a baby’s
eyes, you get a hit of moksha. You don’t
feel confined by that responsibility of
being a parent; you feel that it offers you
the deepest sense of your own freedom
and choice.
Simply taking time to remember your
own inherent freedom, in other words,
gives meaning to your dharma—and
everything you do. Practicing yoga, in a
very real sense, is practicing moksha.
“You are as free as you experience
yourself to be,” says Brooks.Balancing Act
The key to working with the purusharthas
paradigm is to constantly examine not
only the essential concepts and their role
in your life, but also how well
balanced they are. Are you working so
hard to put your kids through school
that your life feels like an endless grind?
(That’s too much dharma, not enough
kama.) Are you so trapped in pleasure
that you’re neglecting your duty to your
friends and family? (Too much kama,
not enough dharma.) Have you become
so focused on making money that you
have no time to meditate? (Too much
artha, not enough moksha.) Are you
spending so much time getting blissedout at the yoga studio that you can’t
swing this month’s rent? (Too much
moksha, not enough artha.)
The balance between them will
constantly shift—by stage of life, by
month, by week, even by the minute.
A young mother, for instance, will
naturally emphasise the dharma of
raising her children, and her artha will be
about providing for it. An elderly man
facing the end of life will turn toward
moksha, ready to leave artha and dharma
behind. A business executive entering
contract negotiations will focus on artha
and dharma; a college student on
summer break will indulge in more
kama. All that is as it should be. The
work of balance isn’t literal—it’s an effort
to face the world with all of your pieces
intact, to live in a conscious way that
leaves no part of your Self behind.
That work, of course, starts on
the yoga mat. “Yoga is virtuosity in
being human,” says Brooks. “The
purusharthas tell us that we must
meditate on our roles in the world, our
values, relationships, and passions.
These are not concerns to cure,
extinguish, or transcend. They are
simply part of being human, and
embracing them is loving life.”