8. Hinduism. Mokṩa is the word most generally used
in Hinduism to denote an idea equivalent to salvation.
But the word literally means liberation, and the some-
what different action or process thereby implied from
that of salvation reflects the distinctive Hindu view
of human nature and destiny. This view first found
expression in what is known as the early Upanishadic
period of Indian culture (ca. eighth century B.C.), and
was based upon the twin doctrines of samsāra and
karma. Samsāra means the stream of existence in the
empirical world, involving the individual in a ceaseless
cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The form of each
period of incarnate life is believed to be determined
by the nature of one's actions in previous lives. By this
law or process (karma, literally “deed” or “act”), the
soul of self (ātman) may even be reborn in nonhuman
forms, if the entail of its past lives so requires.
The operation of karma can be regarded as the
working-out of a person's sins or misdeeds; but al-
though an ethical factor is thus involved, in Indian
thought the process of
samsāra and
karma is primarily
seen as resulting from the disposition of the
ātman to
cling to existence in the empirical world, which it
identifies with reality. This disposition stems from a
primordial
avidyā or ignorance, and it prevents the
ātman from perceiving that
Brahman is the true Real-
ity and the source and ground of its own being.
How this avidyā originated is not explained. The
great Hindu teacher Řankara (ca. 788-820 A.D.) main-
tained that to seek for a causal explanation of it is itself
an expression of avidyā, for the attempt assumes the
reality of the empirical world. Accordingly, the un-
ending misery of human existence is accepted as due
to some primordial ignorance on the part of the ātman,
not to some original sin which it had committed. To
emphasize the infinite extent of this misery, Indian
thinkers invented an elaborate chronology of world-
ages of immense duration and repetitive pattern, since
Time was conceived as cyclic in its process, not linear.
Through these unending cycles of Time the individual
ātman is doomed to drag out its miserable existence,
suffering the pain and degradation of innumerable
births and deaths, and burdened by the ever-increasing
entail of its own karma.
It is from this fate that liberation (mokṣa) is sought.
Hinduism teaches that such liberation is possible, and
offers various ways by which it may be attained. Of
these ways the three most notable are the Advaita
Vedānta, the bhaktimārga, and Samkhya-Yoga. Advaita
Vedānta, or Non-Dualistic Vedānta, is a philosophical
discipline based upon the principle tat tuam asi (“That
art thou”), enunciated in the Chāndogya Upanishad
VI, 8.7. The aim of the discipline is to bring the indi-
vidual ātman to an effective realization of its essential
identity with Brahman. The achievement of such real-
ization liberates the ātman from its fatal illusion about
the empirical world and its own individuality, and so
delivers it from involvement in samsāra and karma.
Bhaktimārga (“the way of bhakti”) promises release
through divine help, won by an intense personal devo-
tion to the Hindu gods Vishnu or Shiva. In the great
classic of bhaktimārga, the Bhagavadgītā (“Song of the
Lord”), the ultimate goal is union with God, and the
promise is made to the devotee Arjuna: “Set thy mind
on me, place thy intellect in me; in me verily shalt
thou dwell hereafter” (Xll.8). Samkhya-Yoga aims to
achieve liberation by enabling the individual to make
an existential distinction between himself and the
empirical world. This insight is attained by the rigorous
practice of yogic techniques calculated to gain a
proper state of psychophysical detachment.
In these, and the many other ways by which mokṣa
is sought in Hinduism, the underlying assumption is
that the individual must achieve the goal by his own
efforts, even though he may be assisted by divine grace.
And the process is essentially that of his correcting,
or recovering from, a primordial error or illusion, into
which he inexplicably fell; it is not one of repenting
and obtaining forgiveness of sins he has committed.
