You think of mukti as liberation, but in the spiritual path
mukti means not liberation but merger. Just as the water of the river merges in
the sea, the Atman (self) within the sadhaka merges in the ocean that is the
Atman (Self). The sadhaka attains mukti by losing himself in the ocean of the
Atman. (Swami Adbhutananda, the famous unlettered disciple of Sri Ramakrishna)
One who makes no distinction of self and other with regard
to [one’s] person and possessions, who regards all beings with an even eye and
is tranquil of mind, is indeed the best of the godly. (Bhagavata, 11.2.52)
According to Vedanta, our predicament is universally like
that of the absent-minded person searching frantically for the necklace she/he
is wearing. Our real Self is the one thing that we do not know, even though we
are largely self-centered beings.
Success in the world requires violence, cruelty, falsehood,
perjury and treachery. What people do not realize is that such success has a
very very short shelf life. Someone more cruel, cunning and adept in treachery
will easily overpower and take over the mantle of success.
A wise proverb states: In each person there dwells a King.
Speak to the King and the King will come forth. The poetry of the Upanishads is
speech directed to the King within all of us. It is kingly speech, lofty,
sovereign, unassailable speech whose unearthly cadences are as a ‘breath of the
eternal’ come down to our world of strife and division to awaken us from out of
a bad dream. (Richard Schiffman in Living
Wisdom)
Scriptural knowledge (jnana) and scriptural prescriptions together with devotion are meant to weaken the
hold of samsara on the individual soul.