Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

If the body and creation are transcended and the Self realized even once, there ensures that wisdom which will eradicate ignorance and override the cycle of births and deaths. 

Moksha is not to be sought in heavens, on earth or in the nether regions. It is synonumous with Self-realization. Moksha is not anything to be got afresh, for it is already there only to be realized. Such realization arises with the elimination of ignorance. Absolutely nothing more is required to achieve the aim of life. Moksha must not be thought to be different from the Self. If it is a thing to be acquired, its absence before attainment is implied. If it can be absent even once why should not its absence recur? Then moksha will be found to be impermanent and so not worthwhile striving for. Again if it can be acquired, acquisition implies non-Self. What is non-Self is only a myth, like a hare growing horns. [Sri Ramana says that moksha is another name for 'I' or Self.] 

The Self is on the other hand all-round Perfection. So where else can moksha be located? If it were so, moksha would be like a reflection in a mirror. The popular idea is that moksha is release from bondage, meaning destruction of ignorance. Ignorance is itself a form of thought: destruction is its absence; to bring about its absence is only another form of thought. So then on investigation the whole statement gets involved and becomes meaningless. For a thought cannot be destroyed and still be a thought.

(To be continued)