Liberation

Coming from a Catholic background but not identifying as a Catholic myself, I have come to appreciate the energy and flow associated with Hinduism. I am especially interested in the concept of moksa and samsara. I was trying to explain the concept of samsara to a friend after completing the readings and her response was simply, "Why would you want to be free from rebirth? It's a fresh start every time!" I admit that when I first thought about the concept, my initial thoughts were the same but then I thought deeper and came up with a current example to help myself and others understand why liberation is the goal of this religion.

Imagine this... 

It's your first day of college. You are moving in, meeting your roommate, walking around campus, and seeing all the potential this place has to offer. Your nerves start to calm after attending the activities fair and signing up for all the clubs you possibly can. You become very involved and are well known on campus. Sophomore and junior year fly by and all of a sudden you're a senior. You turn 21, go out with friends, maintain your 4.0 GPA, and you've had an amazing college experience. Graduation day comes and you are walking across the stage to accept your diploma, stacks of job offers sitting at home and the second you shake the hand of the president of the university...

...SNAP...

It's your first day of college. You are moving in, meeting your roommate....

The first few times, this might seem fun having heard everyone say, "Oh, I would kill to be a college student again." After a while, though, those are not the feelings that I would personally have. I would want nothing more than to escape this cycle of endless action and rebirth that Hinduism calls samsara. Moksa is this escape. In order to reach moksa, one must understand the other aspects of Hinduism such as dharma, asrama, and most importantly atman and brahman. I look forward to continuing to understand the connections between these aspects of Hinduism.