The Biggest Lie About Moksha That’s Been Sold to You
Riya Kumari | Mar 11, 2025, 23:58 IST
( Image credit : Times Life Bureau )
So, you want Moksha. Liberation. Freedom from the great hamster wheel of human suffering. Well, who doesn’t? It’s the spiritual equivalent of winning the lottery, except without the questionable relatives suddenly showing up at your door. But here’s the thing—the idea of Moksha that’s been marketed to you? It’s got about as much truth in it as those "miracle" skincare serums that claim to erase ten years overnight. Yep. It’s a scam. A very old, very elegant scam, but a scam nonetheless.
There’s a story you’ve been fed about Moksha—one so carefully packaged, so neatly tied with the ribbon of “spiritual truth,” that you never thought to question it. It goes something like this: You, a weary traveler in the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, must strive, suffer, and renounce until, one fine day, you transcend it all. No more human messiness, no more emotional entanglements, no more life. Just eternal peace, stillness, liberation. It sounds appealing. Who wouldn’t want a way out of suffering? Who wouldn’t want to escape the weight of existence? But what if I told you that this version of Moksha—the one that paints it as an exit—isn’t just misleading? It’s the biggest spiritual con ever sold.
The greatest misunderstanding about liberation is the belief that it means getting out—out of the cycle of birth, out of the drama, out of the very thing that makes us human. But Moksha isn’t about escape. It’s about understanding that you were never really trapped in the first place.
Think about it. What binds us to suffering? It’s not life itself. It’s the illusion that we are powerless in it. It’s the idea that peace is something distant, something we must struggle to attain. But what if peace was never something to be achieved? What if it was something to be realized—right here, in the thick of things? This is the truth no one tells you: Moksha is not a destination. It’s a shift in perception. It’s not about reaching a place where nothing affects you—it’s about no longer being enslaved by what does.
The reason Moksha has been so misunderstood is that we tend to think of freedom as something that happens after—after we fix our flaws, after we renounce enough, after we’ve somehow proven ourselves worthy of liberation. But that’s just another illusion.
Imagine spending years trying to break free from a prison, only to realize the door was never locked. The walls? Just shadows. The chains? A trick of the mind. This is what real Moksha is—it’s the moment you see through the illusion. It’s realizing that suffering was never in life itself—it was in the way we clung to it, feared it, tried to control it. It was in the belief that joy and sorrow, love and loss, were things that happened to us, rather than experiences we were meant to fully live.
It looks like being completely present in your life. Not above it. Not removed from it. But in it, fully engaged. It’s loving deeply, without the fear of loss stealing the joy of connection. It’s embracing pain, knowing that it, too, is part of the richness of being alive. It’s walking through the fire of human experience and no longer needing to run from it.
The irony of Moksha is that the more you chase it as a way out, the further away it seems. But the moment you stop running, the moment you stop treating life as something to escape, you realize—you were free all along. So, if you’ve been waiting for some grand moment of liberation, some divine passport out of the cycle of life, let this be the moment you wake up. Not to an exit, but to an understanding. Moksha was never about getting out. It was always about being here, completely, without fear.
1. Moksha Is Not About Leaving
Trap
( Image credit : Pexels )
The greatest misunderstanding about liberation is the belief that it means getting out—out of the cycle of birth, out of the drama, out of the very thing that makes us human. But Moksha isn’t about escape. It’s about understanding that you were never really trapped in the first place.
Think about it. What binds us to suffering? It’s not life itself. It’s the illusion that we are powerless in it. It’s the idea that peace is something distant, something we must struggle to attain. But what if peace was never something to be achieved? What if it was something to be realized—right here, in the thick of things? This is the truth no one tells you: Moksha is not a destination. It’s a shift in perception. It’s not about reaching a place where nothing affects you—it’s about no longer being enslaved by what does.
2. The Prison That Never Existed
Free
( Image credit : Pexels )
The reason Moksha has been so misunderstood is that we tend to think of freedom as something that happens after—after we fix our flaws, after we renounce enough, after we’ve somehow proven ourselves worthy of liberation. But that’s just another illusion.
Imagine spending years trying to break free from a prison, only to realize the door was never locked. The walls? Just shadows. The chains? A trick of the mind. This is what real Moksha is—it’s the moment you see through the illusion. It’s realizing that suffering was never in life itself—it was in the way we clung to it, feared it, tried to control it. It was in the belief that joy and sorrow, love and loss, were things that happened to us, rather than experiences we were meant to fully live.
3. What Does Liberation Actually Look Like?
Fear
( Image credit : Pexels )
It looks like being completely present in your life. Not above it. Not removed from it. But in it, fully engaged. It’s loving deeply, without the fear of loss stealing the joy of connection. It’s embracing pain, knowing that it, too, is part of the richness of being alive. It’s walking through the fire of human experience and no longer needing to run from it.
The irony of Moksha is that the more you chase it as a way out, the further away it seems. But the moment you stop running, the moment you stop treating life as something to escape, you realize—you were free all along. So, if you’ve been waiting for some grand moment of liberation, some divine passport out of the cycle of life, let this be the moment you wake up. Not to an exit, but to an understanding. Moksha was never about getting out. It was always about being here, completely, without fear.