MOKSHA

 There are four variations of Moksha (liberation) mentioned in the Upanishads.

sārūpyam (same form), salokyam (same world), samīpyam (closeness), sāyujyam (coalescence). These are not parsed in the Upanishads so it left to acharyas/gurus to interpret them. Various interpretations have arisen in the Purānas and they are often described as being “optional”.

So some believe that in the state of Moksha we take on the form of our beloved deity (sārūpyam) and live together with him or her in their transcendental world (salokyam), having a perpetual beatific vision of him or her (samīpyam) and some like the Advaitis (Non-dualists) deny the other three and affirm a merging or unification with Brahman as the ultimate state.

This is the interpretation explained to me by one of my acharyas.

The Absolute Ground of Being – Brahman – according to the Upanishads has four phases or hypostasis (catuṣpāt).

1. Brahman — the all-pervading, inconceivable Absolute Godhead consisting of consciousness.
2. Iśvara — the Personal God who divides in Brahmā, Śiva and Viṣṇu
3. Hiraṇya-garbha — the conglomerate of all the individual jīvas.
4. virāṭ — the material Universe as the “body” of the Godhead consisting of atoms.

Iśvara, Hiraṇya-garbha and Virāṭ all arise and subside back into the Brahman in cycles of evolution and involution.

Now bearing these four phases in mind we can examine the four types of Moksha or liberation.

When we attain the realisation that we are inseparable parts of the universe we are said to have reached sālokya - same world Moksha.

When we realise that all sentient beings are like us - parts and parcels of the same Divine Nature and that were are separated only by the different bodies we inhabit, then we have achieved sārūpyam - sameness of form.

When we understand our intimate relationship with the Trinity (trimūrti) and begin to develop an intimacy and relationship with them and with the concept of īśvara we have reached samīpyam - intimacy.

And finally we all eventually reach the end of the cycle of rebirth and our final Liberated state is merging with the Brahman (sāyujyam).