In Hindu philosophy, Apavarga is the state of the self released from all bonds of body-mind complex in Nyaya Vaiseshika systems. It is a singular concept of moksha in Hindu philosophy.
Knowledge or consciousness is not an essential quality of the
self. The self is a unique substance to which all cognitions, feelings and
experiences belong as its attributes. It is because of its association with the
mind that there arise conscious states and experiences. So for the soul to
realize its true nature, this system analyzes the world of reality. The
realization is moksha, technically called apavarga. Vaiseshika Sutra, V.2.18.
states – ‘Liberation of self consists in abandoning all its adventitious
properties.’ There is no concept of embodied release in Nyaya.
The state of release is also not a state of bliss. The experience
of pleasure is always mixed with pain. So the blissful state of liberation also
will be followed by pain and requires some sense organs to experience bliss. So
there is nothing like experience in the liberated state. It is the state of
unconscious, indifferent, pure existence like that of a stone (pasana).
According to Nyaya Vaiseshika, the cause of bondage is ignorance
of the nature of categories and karma. The soul can attain tattva-jnana only
through the grace of God. By the study of scriptures, by means of reasoning,
and by meditation, the wrong knowledge of ‘I am the body and mind’, mithya
jnana is destroyed. The soul becomes free from actions and fruit of actions.
This leads to the cessation of births and consequently of all pains and
sufferings.