Talk:Transcending Karm through Mokṣa

By Vishal Agarwal

It might be argued – ‘Performance of virtuous actions consistent with dharm should be sufficient to achieve mokṣa because the result of good actions can only be good.’ But as explained above, all worldly or ritualistic efforts (taught in the scriptures) can only have a finite, perishable and a mixed result. In fact, actions that are Sāttvic (completely pure, best) too can be like a chain or a rope if they are pursued with desire for the fruit or with any selfish motive.

Of these, sattva, being free of impurity, causes illumination and freedom from disease. Blameless One, it binds by attachment to happiness, and by attachment to knowledge. Gītā 14.6

In his commentary on this verse, Swami Prabhupāda says—

“The difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the mode of goodness, he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better than others. In this way he becomes conditioned. The best examples are the scientist and philosopher: each is very proud of his knowledge, and because they generally improve their living conditions, they feel a sort of material happiness. This sense of advanced happiness in conditioned life makes them bound by the mode of goodness of material nature. As such, they are attracted toward working in the mode of goodness, and, as long as they have an attraction for working in that way, they have to take some type of body in the modes of nature. Thus, there is no likelihood of liberation, or of being transferred to the spiritual world. Repeatedly, one may become a philosopher, a scientist, or a poet, and repeatedly, become entangled in the same disadvantages of birth and death. But, due to the illusion of the material energy, one thinks that that sort of life is pleasant.”

Swami Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa also declares that sattva guṇa is like a golden chain, rajo guṇa like an iron chain, and tamo guṇa is like the ordinary jute rope or chain that binds human beings. In short, even good karmas are a golden rope. They tie us to saṃsāra when they are performed as pravṛtta karm –

The rope of dharm uplifts one, whereas the rope of adharm drags one down. Cleaving both these ropes with the sword of knowledge, one attains peace (of mokṣa) upon discarding the body. Śivadharmottara Upapurāṇa 3.42

Following the path of pravṛtti dharm (or dharm in short). But Hindu dharm also teaches that a human being is capable of rising above pravṛtti dharm to pursue the goal of mokṣa.

Note that nivṛtti dharm (mokṣa dharm or karma-yog) is one of the paths to achieve mokṣa but not the only one in the śāstrā. There are other paths that advocate total giving up of karm (with a single-minded focus on spiritual knowledge, wisdom and meditation) except actions needed for the bare maintenance of the body. Nevertheless, nivṛtta karm can be combined with the other paths to achieve mokṣa –

Merit and defects arising from performance of virtuous and prohibited karmas do not affect those saints who are exclusively devoted to Me [bhakti-yog], who are of even mind [dhyāna-yog], and who have realized the soul that is superior to buddhi (intellect) [jñāna-yog]. Uddhava Gītā 15.36

A modern saint also explains –

“The whole lot of sañcita karm is destroyed by attaining Knowledge of Brahman or the eternal. It can be gently modified by entertaining lofty, divine thoughts, and doing virtuous actions. Āgāmi karm can be destroyed by expiatory rites or prāyaścitta; and by removing the idea of agency through nimitta bhāva (attitude that one is an instrument in the hands of Bhagavān) and sākṣī bhāva (attitude that one is silent witness of the actions of the senses and of the mind).”

We will now discuss how all categories of karm can be destroyed by following one or more of the many paths to mokṣa.