Spiritual Liberation Quotes & Sayings

Nothing will be attained from actions of hundreds of thousands of lives. Moksha (liberation) is attained through 'absolute humility' (param vinaya). The 'gates of understanding' are opened with 'absolute humility'. 'Absolute humility' arises only when the ego is dissolved. — Dada Bhagwan

If you know how to keep yourself pleasant within, irrespective of what is happening around you, Ultimate Liberation cannot be denied to you. — Jaggi Vasudev

Bowing down in prayer to a body results in worldly life and bowing down in prayer to Soul results in attaining moksha (final liberation). — Dada Bhagwan

What is the body complex (pudgal)? It is influx and outflow (puran-galan); it is credit and debit. And if you attain knowledge of the Soul, the Self, then you will attain Moksha (liberation). — Dada Bhagwan

Insistence on one's own opinion can never lead to attainment of Moksha [Ultimate Liberation]. Only those who are free of insistence will attain Liberation. — Dada Bhagwan

What does Jinmudra (Tirthankar God's sitting posture) say? The lotus position of Vitrag Lords, one hand and foot placed over the other, preaches, "Oh, humans! Understand this if you have the wisdom. You have already brought with you the food, drink and all things you need; therefore, let go of the awareness that 'I am the doer' and make effort to attain Moksha (ultimate liberation)! — Dada Bhagwan

We have to consider that a man who has been under such enormous mental pressure for such a long time is naturally in some danger after his liberation, especially since the pressure was released quite suddenly. This danger (in the sense of psychological hygiene) is the psychological counterpart of the bends. Just as the physical health of the caisson worker would be endangered if he left his diver's chamber suddenly (where he is under enormous atmospheric pressure), so the man who has suddenly been liberated from mental pressure can suffer damage to his moral and spiritual health. — Viktor E. Frankl

When one remains 'sincere', no type of fear will come to him in the worldly life (sansar) and it will lead him to moksha (ultimate liberation)! — Dada Bhagwan

Mind is indeed that which takes one to Moksha, and it is also the mind that makes one wander around in the worldly life. One needs to just turn it in the right direction. It had been turned in the wrong direction, and so it needs to be turned in the right direction. — Dada Bhagwan

The worldly life means a market place of sensual pleasures. Worldly life means false (temporary) happiness all the time. And moksha (liberation) means permanent happiness all the time. — Dada Bhagwan

Kali comes from the Sanskrit word 'kal', meaning time. She is a Hindu goddess, who is greatly misunderstood by the Western world as being associated with sex, death and violence, but in the Hindu text she kills only demons. For humankind, she represents the death of the ego and the will to overcome the 'I am the body' idea. She reminds us that the body is only temporary, and through this realisation she provides liberation to her children. To the soul who aspires to greater spiritual endeavours, Kali is receptive, supportive and loving. It is only a person filled with ego who will perceive Kali in a fearsome form. Her black skin represents the womb of the quantum darkness, the great non-manifest from which all of creation arises and into which all of creation will eventually dissolve. — Traci Harding

Gnani's [The enlightened one's] sangna [directions] is the compass then it will take you to the end of your journey [Moksha, ultimate liberation]. And the worldly people's sangna [directions] is the compass then it will make you wander in the worldly life. — Dada Bhagwan

Three tendencies can be observed in the estimation of dreams. Many philosophers have given currency to one of these tendencies, one which at the same time preserves something of the dream's former over-valuation. The foundation of dream life is for them a peculiar state of psychical activity, which they even celebrate as elevation to some higher state. Schubert, for instance, claims: "The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter." Not all go so far as this, but many maintain that dreams have their origin in real spiritual excitations, and are the outward manifestations of spiritual powers whose free movements have been hampered during the day ("Dream Phantasies," Scherner, Volkelt). A large number of observers acknowledge that dream life is capable of extraordinary achievements - at any rate, in certain fields ("Memory"). — Sigmund Freud

Freedom is the liberation of my spirit and my soul from unpleasant condition. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Political movements for justice are part of the fuller development of the cosmos, and nature is the matrix in which humans come to their self-awareness of their power to transform. Liberation movements are a fuller development of the cosmos's sense of harmony, balance, justice, and celebration. This is why true spiritual liberation demands rituals of cosmic celebrating and healing, which will in turn culminate in personal transformation and liberation. — Matthew Fox

To whom should you surrender? The one who takes the responsibility for you right till the 'end' (moksha, the ultimate liberation). Surrender to the one who is tatharoop [attained the highest spiritual state]. Surrender to the one whom you consider a 'Virat Purush' [magnificent human being], otherwise there is no point of surrendering. — Dada Bhagwan

Complete departure of kashay (anger-pride-deceit-greed) is Moksha (Liberation). At first, there is the departure of kashays and then there will be 'that' [Liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

Where you don't see pure love, there is indeed no path to moksha [ultimate liberation] there. Where there is a fee, there is no pure love there! — Dada Bhagwan

...inner life is inadequately recognised or honoured by many conservative leaders and spokesmen, in word or in work. In effect the theology of conservatism has been sacrificed to the new gods and the new morality of modernity. The discipline of spiritual conservatism has been manifestly lessened by its own peculiar form of liberation theology, as it were, and by the purely quantitative point of view prevailing in the marketplace of ideas. — George A. Panichas

What do the Vitaraag [the enlightened one] say? 'If you want to continue to remain in the worldly life, then do what people say, but if you want to attain Moksha [ultimate liberation], then do only what I say, then only you can go to Moksha! — Dada Bhagwan

If there is true 'Selfishness,' then there is 'liberation of the Self', and that indeed is one's own form (the Self). — Dada Bhagwan

Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation. — A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Worship without 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] will give material pleasures in the world and worship accompanied by 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] is known as 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] which gives the result of moksha [ultimate liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

Only Gnan (Knowledge of the Self) will give liberation. All other instruments (& practices) create bondage. — Dada Bhagwan

When there is no attachment-abhorrence; one is on the path of liberation [moksha]. — Dada Bhagwan

Physical action [paudgalik kriya] will give only worldly fruits; it will not go in vain. If you plant sugar cane, you will eat sweet food and if you plant bitter gourd, you will eat bitter food. Plant whichever taste appeals to you and if you want liberation [Moksha], then don't plant anything. Stop sowing seeds altogether. — Dada Bhagwan

How far is the Soul from attaining moksha (ultimate liberation)? Only the obstructive (antray) karmas. — Dada Bhagwan

This naming of things is so crucial to possession - a spiritual padlock with the key thrown irretrievably away - that it is a murder, an erasing, and it is not surprising that when people have felt themselves prey to it (conquest), among their first acts of liberation is to change their names ... — Jamaica Kincaid

Karma is your survival and your bondage. And if you handle it right, it can also be your liberation. — Jaggi Vasudev

Where there is any kind of doer-ship, there is karmic bondage, and where there is knower-ship and inner understanding, there is Moksha [Liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

Absence of conflict creating intents is itself Moksh (Ultimate Liberation). — Dada Bhagwan

Unity does not exist in the world. Only when the Gnani Purush [the enlightened one] grants moksha [liberation], does unity arise. Unity cannot prevail without Gnan [knowledge of the self]. — Dada Bhagwan

Eternal love' (sanatan sneha) is indeed moksha [ultimate liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

Where there is use of the buddhi [intellect], there is no Moksha [Liberation], and where there is Moksha, there the intellect is not needed. Samaj [Understanding] is needed. — Dada Bhagwan

You cannot still your mind - it is the nature of mind to keep moving. You can only be the stillness that is beyond the mind and be free from thoughts, yet watch the mind experiencing the true essence of life. Transcending the mind is Sanyasa (detachment or renunciation) and freedom that comes with it is Nirvana (liberation). — Rashmit Kalra

If one has egoism without my-ness, he will go to moksha; all this entrapment is there because of egoism with my-ness! — Dada Bhagwan

Your anger, pride, deceit, and greed should be such that they hurt no one. If they are limited to where they only hurt only you and no one else, then the path of liberation is open. — Dada Bhagwan

If one's mind becomes conflict-free, that is 'moksha'; conflict filled mind, that is worldly life. — Dada Bhagwan

One binds the worldly life with bad thoughts; one binds the worldly life with good thoughts. With the absence of thoughts (avichaar) there is moksha [liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

When you understand that [in reality] the bitter fruit [unfavourable result] is sweet and the sweet fruit [favourable result] is bitter, then you will go to moksha [the ultimate liberation]! — Dada Bhagwan

Where there is no 'superior', no underhand; such is the moksha [ultimate liberation] of the Vitaraag Lords [the enlightened ones] that I would like to have. — Dada Bhagwan

If one were to worship the Soul (self) for even a moment, he will attain moksha without fail. Such is the elegance of the body-complex (paudgalik ramanta) in this world! — Dada Bhagwan

It is the nature of the Kali Yuga that most human beings are now held back from spiritual liberation due to the gravity of inertia, apathy and laziness, (known in Sankrit as the quality of tapas) that overwhelms this age. Despite this seemingly gloomy prognosis, there is a way out of this predicament for those with the will and stamina to awaken from the rampant lethargy, within and outside of themselves, to take action. — Zeena Schreck

What is it that doesn't allow you to go to moksha? Obstinacy! — Dada Bhagwan

This is the difference between someone whose heart is purified and sound and one whose heart is impure and corrupt. Impure people oppress, and the pure-hearted not only forgive their oppressors, but elevate them in status and character. In order to purify ourselves, we must begin to recognize this truth. This is what this book is all about - a book of self-purification and a manual of liberation. If we work on our hearts, if we actually implement what is suggested here, we'll begin to see changes in our lives, our condition, our society, and even within our own family dynamics. It is a blessing that we have this science of purification, a blessing that this teaching exists in the world today. What remains is for us to take these teachings seriously.
Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart. Translation and Commentary of Imam Mawlud's Matharat al-Qulub. Schaykh Hamza Yusuf. E-Book S. 10 — Hamza Yusuf

The God of the Bible is the God of liberation rather than oppression; a God of justice rather than injustice; a God of freedom and humanity rather than enslavement and subservience; a God of love, righteousness and community rather than hatred, self-interest and exploitation. — Allan Boesak

Shukladhyan (pure contemplation of the Self, the Soul) is the direct cause for moksha (liberation). Dharmadhyan (auspicious contemplation; to hurt no one, give happiness to others) is the indirect cause for moksh (liberation). Artadhyan (inner mournful contemplation that hurts the self) is a cause for a birth in animal life form (non-human). Raudradhyan (wrathful contemplation that hurts the self and others) is a cause for a life in hell. — Dada Bhagwan

God says that the one who does not find the worldly life boring at all, is not worthy of moksha [the ultimate liberation] at all. While earning money one gets bored, while not earning money one gets bored, everywhere one gets bored, then he is considered worthy of moksha. — Dada Bhagwan

Shutting out all external objects, fixing the vision between the eyebrows, making even the inward and outward breaths, the sage who has controlled the senses, mind and understanding, who is intent upon liberation, who has cast away desire, fear and anger, he is ever freed. — The Bhagavad Gita

The language for attaining Liberation [moksha] is beyond duality. The language for worldly life is with duality. — Dada Bhagwan

In reality, the outer instruments (hands, feet, eyes, etc) are not the hindrance (for liberation); it is the inner instrument (mind, intellect, chit and ego) that is obstructive. — Dada Bhagwan

Fruit of discharge karma with shukladhyan (contemplation as the Self, Pure Soul) is moksha, and fruit of discharge karma with dharmadhyan (auspicious contemplation; to not hurt anyone, to give happiness to others) is tremendous punya. It binds punyanubandhi punya (merit karma which binds more merit karma). — Dada Bhagwan

The human soul is on its journey from the law to love, from discipline to liberation, from the moral plane to the spiritual. — Rabindranath Tagore

This conversation revealed to Odo a third conception of the religious idea. In Piedmont religion imposed itself as a military discipline, the enforced duty of the Christian citizen to the heavenly state; to the Duke it was a means of purchasing spiritual immunity from the consequences of bodily weakness; to the Bishop, it replaced the panem et circenses of ancient Rome. Where, in all this, was the share of those whom Christ had come to save? Where was Saint Francis's devotion to his heavenly bride, the Lady Poverty? Though here and there a good parish priest like Crescenti ministered to the temporal wants of the peasantry, it was only the free-thinker and the atheist who, at the risk of life and fortune, laboured for their moral liberation. Odo listened with a saddened heart, thinking, as he followed his host through the perfumed shade of the gardens, and down — Edith Wharton

As long as there is the egoism of 'I-ness' (hoonpanu) and the partiality towards 'my-ness' (marapanu), how can there be liberation till then? — Dada Bhagwan

Knowledge' may be there but 'correctness' is required along with it. If you have 'knowledge' but don't have the 'correctness'; you will go to moksha, but others will not gain any benefit! — Dada Bhagwan

Liberation from ego is what we shramanas are seeking, O Exalted One. If I were your disciple, O Venerable One, I'm afraid it might befall me that my ego would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would survive and grow great, for then I would make the teaching, my discipleship, my love for you, and the community of the monks into my ego! — Hermann Hesse

All these objections are raised by people, has God raised them? He who wants to be free (attain Liberation) has no objections, and he who wants to be bound, he will have nothing but objections. People become addicts of objections. — Dada Bhagwan

When you become worthy of people's worship, you will be able to attain moksha (liberation), you cannot go to moksha just like that. Reproach (criticism) by people is the cause of a life in the lower realms. — Dada Bhagwan

This world is not without causes. There is Moksha [ultimate liberation] when one's causes stops. There is Moksha where everyone's 'claim' is completed. Without a cause, effect does not happen. — Dada Bhagwan

There is only one way of attaining liberation and of obtaining the omniscience of enlightenment: following an authentic spiritual master. — Sogyal Rinpoche

What is the one going to Moksha (attaining Liberation) like? He is someone who enjoys only the bliss of the 'Self'. — Dada Bhagwan

When there is no venom (poison) of any kind in your eyes, when a liberated smile is seen, then people will do your darshan (will come to see you with intent of worship). — Dada Bhagwan

Know that the eradication of the identification with the body is charity, spiritual austerity and ritual sacrifice; it is virtue, divine union and devotion; it is heaven, wealth, peace and truth; it is grace; it is the state of divine silence; it is the deathless death; it is jnana, renunciation, final liberation and bliss. — Ramana Maharshi

Moksha (Liberation) is to become free from gathering & dispersing of circumstances. — Dada Bhagwan

If you want to go to moksha (attain ultimate liberation), you will have to become simple and straightforward. Being obstinate won't work there. You will have to remove all the tubers; become totally free from intellect (abudh). — Dada Bhagwan

What do the vitarags [the enlightened one] say? This world will keep on running, You do not interfere with anything in it. If you want to attain ultimate liberation (moksha) then you will have maintain a state of vitaragta (state free of attachment). — Dada Bhagwan

What will the ego not do? It is the ego that has given rise to all this. And when the ego leaves, there is Liberation. — Dada Bhagwan

The person who wants to progress on the path of Vitrag (the enlightened ones), should keep the focus of the awareness to progress from the non-auspicious (bad) to the auspicious (good). And if one wants to go to final Liberation [moksha], he should keep 'pure focus as the Self (Soul)' (shuddha upayog). The person, who wants to go to Moksha, should not concern himself with the auspicious (good) or the inauspicious (bad). He should keep them both as the things to be cleared out. — Dada Bhagwan

As long as there is (worldly) selfish interest, there is no unity. Unity is attained with the ultimate intent of the Self [the intent of attaining self-realization, liberation]. — Dada Bhagwan

Who is considered as not living in the worldly life? The person who doesn't have focus on the non-Self. 'I' (the Gnani Purush) do not live in the worldly life even for one moment. Liberation (Moksha) is to be found through the one who does not live in the worldly life. What can you not attain through the grace of such a person? — Dada Bhagwan

Moksha (ultimate liberation) means that you just have to change your vision. — Dada Bhagwan

Mental alertness is not awareness. Mental alertness only enhances your survival instincts. It does not take you towards liberation. — Jaggi Vasudev

The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda - Christ's kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga - upon the earth. — Sri Aurobindo

Civility must be a natural thing; all the rest is considered etiquette. The path of moksha [ultimate liberation] means there must be simplicity. There should be no 'ghosts of etiquette' there. — Dada Bhagwan

By doing actions, one will not attain Liberation [Moksha]; through understanding leads one to Liberation. The fruit (effect) of action is the worldly life [sansaar]. — Dada Bhagwan

One's liberation begins once he does the darshan of kashaya-free (absence of inner anger, pride, deceit and greed) Gnani purush [the enlightened one]. Who is considered kashaya-free? The one whose state is that where there was no kashaya, there is no kashaya, and there never will be any. The one who is never in the state of the non-Self. Doing darshan of such a One brings ultimate well being. — Dada Bhagwan

Where the 'charging' (of karma) stops, there lies the symptoms (signs) of attaining moksha. — Dada Bhagwan

What are dualities? They are what creates the worldly life [sansaar]. And if one attains Liberation [moksha], he will be beyond dualities! — Dada Bhagwan

If you live your life burning for the highest possibility, in that burning itself, there is liberation. — Jaggi Vasudev

Lawrence Hill, a cultural and spiritual descendant of West African griots, has used his vast storytelling talents to create an epic story that spans three continents. The Book of Negroes recites the pain, misery and liberation of one African woman, Aminata Diallo, who was stolen from her homeland and sold into American slavery. Through Aminata, Hill narrates the terrifying story of slavery and puts at the centre a female experience of the African Diaspora. I wept upon reading this story. The Book of Negroes is courageous, breathtaking, simply brilliant. — Afua Cooper

Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realizers of great dreams.
You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past. — Ben Okri

If attachment becomes fixed on a 'Gnani' [The enlightened one], then it becomes Real attachment (prashastaraag). It will get one's work done. It will uproot attachment in all other places. Because the Gnani is Vitarag, attachment-free. Attachment for a Vitarag gives liberation from all the suffering. — Dada Bhagwan

You are in charge of your own karma, your own life, your own spiritual path, and your own liberation, just as I am in charge of mine. — Lama Surya Das

It's very funny. People do not want to achieve liberation or be happy. This is the basic guideline they teach you in Spiritual Training School. — Frederick Lenz

Who doesn't allow one to attain siddh gati (the final state of Liberation, moksha)? The body-complex (pudgal - that which charges and discharges). Similarly, what doesn't let a gourd covered with mud, to go on top and float on water? The mud. The negative atoms, they weigh very heavily. They drag the Soul, the Self lower down. — Dada Bhagwan

To limit yourself to a label of "alcoholic" is masochistic and false if you have awakened a deeper spiritual identity within and have come to know your true self as unconditioned pure awareness. This doesn't mean that recovering alcoholics don't have to be concerned with relapsing, they must always remain vigilant. The power of addiction should not be underestimated. This exercise in vigilance can become a spiritual tool of liberation as well. Always being aware of choosing between real happiness and false happiness is also the discrimination required to attain enlightenment. — Deepak Chopra

The sign of an advanced spiritual person is that they don't think they're an advanced spiritual person until after liberation. — Frederick Lenz

The path people know, is not the path of liberation. It is the path of the worldly life. The path of liberation is not one of imagination. It is a pure path. Where there are no worries, no externally created problems. There is bliss of the Self (samadhi) amidst all external problems. — Dada Bhagwan

One's 'life' is 'fractured'; he does not even know what he is living for. What is the essence of the human life? It is that one can attain whatever life form one wants, or he can attain ultimate liberation (moksha) if he wants moksha. — Dada Bhagwan

If one were to just understand the worldly life and what it is, he would attain liberation [moksha]. The worldly life is 'relative'. And "All these relatives are temporary adjustments". — Dada Bhagwan

Saints guide people on the path of religion [dharma] and the Gnani Purush [the enlightened one] grants 'liberation' (moksha). — Dada Bhagwan

If you are lost while travelling on the road, then if you ask a guide of the road, you will find the right way. Similarly, people have become lost on their way to moksha. They will find a solution when they meet the One (Gnani, the Enlightened One) who is familiar with the way to moksha. 'We' are that guide to moksha [the ultimate liberation]! — Dada Bhagwan

The Beats were tremendously significant, but chiefly in the way that they provided a preview in the 1950s of the cultural, intellectual, and moral disasters that would fully flower in the late 1960s. The ideas of the Beats, their sensibility, contained in ovo all the characteristics we think of as defining the cultural revolution of the Sixties and Seventies. The adolescent longing for liberation from conventional manners and intellectual standards; the polymorphous sexuality; the narcissism; the destructive absorption in drugs; the undercurrent of criminality; the irrationalism; the naive political radicalism and reflexive anti-Americanism; the adulation of pop music as a kind of spiritual weapon; the Romantic elevation of art as an alternative to rather than as an illumination of normal reality; the pseudo-spirituality, especially the spurious infatuation with Eastern religions: in all this and more the Beats provided a vivid glimpse of what was to come. — Roger Kimball

If you want to attain moksha (ultimate liberation), then you cannot give unsolicited advice. Give advice only when it is asked for. In order to give advice, you have to become the chief! — Dada Bhagwan

If you want liberation [moksha], you will have to be rid of the duality of 'right-and-wrong'. If you want to attain an auspicious (good) state, then have abhorrence for the 'wrong', and attachment for the 'right'. There is no attachment or abhorrence in the pure state [shuddha]. — Dada Bhagwan

This popular picture of Marx's 'materialism' - his anti-spiritual tendency, his wish for uniformity and subordination - is utterly false. Marx's aim was that of the spiritual emancipation of man, of his liberation from the chains of economic determination, of restituting him in his human wholeness, of enabling him to find unity and harmony with his fellow man and with nature. Marx's philosophy was, in secular, nontheistic language, a new and radical step forward in the tradition of prophetic Messianism; it was aimed at the full realization of individualism, the very aim which has guided Western thinking from the Renaissance and the Reformation far into the nineteenth century. — Erich Fromm

Where are you looking for samadhi (enlightened blissful state)? You just come into your own original Self-form of the Soul, final liberation and samadhi are the natural qualities of the Soul! — Dada Bhagwan

Anyone who wants a Prakruti (relative self) that brings worldly benefits, they should worship Mataji,the goddess mother. And those who want Moksha [ultimate liberation] should worship the Soul [Real Self]. Those who want both should worship both. — Dada Bhagwan

In this culture, God is not the highest entity; mukti or liberation is the highest goal. We are willing to use God as a stepping stone, if needed. — Jaggi Vasudev