The ignorant seek the world.
The wise seek Paradise.
The noble seek God.
We could equally say:
The ignorant seek this world.
The wise seek the real World.
The noble seek the real Self.
Know thyself.
Withdraw, and walk the inner Path.
Be mindful of the One within.
To know oneself
is to know the Lord.
Paradise is attained through actions (karma).
God is attained through knowledge (jnana)—
not ordinary knowledge,
but supreme knowledge:
knowing who you truly are.
“He who knows himself
knows his Lord.”
Q. What is the difference between Salvation and Liberation (moksha)?
A:
In the Semitic traditions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism), Salvation refers to the attainment of a celestial abode after physical death where the soul dwells in blissful proximity to the Divine. Unlike Liberation, Salvation preserves the personal identity of the soul in a celestial Garden where some degree of separation between the soul and God is maintained.
Liberation (moksha), by contrast, as articulated in Hinduism, refers to a complete union with the Divine, the drop merging with the Ocean. In Liberation, all multiplicity and distinctions are dissolved into absolute, ineffable Oneness. There is no longer a separate self standing before the Divine; the drop merges fully into the ocean. This state is often described as the Supreme Union, and the great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, famously referred to it as “fusion without confusion.”
For those rooted in monotheistic traditions, this has been understood by some to be the highest realisation of Divine oneness (taḥqīq al-tawḥīd)—where we discover the Supreme Identity. There is no self but the One Self.
Footnote:
* The Vedanta teaches that Paradise is attained through action (karma), whereas Liberation (moksha) is only attained through knowledge (jñāna)—not ordinary knowledge, but supreme knowledge which is knowing who one truly is. This is the direct experience of oneness with the Divine in the heart, and it occurs only after ego-death, which is the barrier separating the soul from its luminous source and supreme identity.
Q: Is Paradise attainable only after physical death, while Liberation (moksha) can be experienced in this very life?
A: Yes—this distinction is central to traditional metaphysics.
Paradise refers to entry into a celestial realm after physical death through Divine Grace and the fruit of one’s karma (actions), to use the Vedantic expression. Liberation (moksha), by contrast, is not the attainment of a higher world but an awakening to a higher state of being. It is a transformation of consciousness rather than a relocation of existence. In Sufi terms, this corresponds to a direct realisation of one’s essential oneness with the Divine in the heart—made possible in this very life through ego-death (fanāʾ fī’Llāh), which gives rise to true life on earth. The Prophetic saying, "Die before (physical) death".
In Hinduism, the Yogi who has become a jīvanmukta is precisely one who has attained Liberation while still living (liberated in life). A Sufi once said,
The Sufi dies before death
The Yogi is liberated in life
Two paths, yet the same summit.
To die before death is to be liberated in life
The jīvanmukta receives a profound foretaste of Liberation in this life—but we should clarify that the fullness of that state which is described as greater than Paradise, can only be experienced after physical death, not just ego-death.
Q: Can a soul enjoy both Liberation and Paradise?
A:
Yes. Traditional metaphysics allows for the realisation of both , rather than treating them as a choice between the two.
The Qur’an itself points towards this possibility in its reference to the two Paradises (55:46). Scholars have explained this verse as indicating two distinct yet simultaneous states of felicity: one a physical Garden—a created realm of bliss—and the other a higher, formless state of felicity. According to Sahl al-Tustarī, one is understood as the reward for actions, while the other is the reward for faith. These correspond respectively to the conditioned and the unconditioned modes of existence.
Frithjof Schuon notes that this Qur’anic verse about the two Paradise is the exact equivalent of Buddhist teaching related to the two bodies of the Buddhas attained by all those who experience Enlightenment (see footnote below).
Union with the Absolute (the drop merging with the Ocean) does not always mean the dissolution of our own separate identity. A concrete example from this world is that of a mystic who experiences ecstatic union with God inwardly while outwardly remaining separate and retaining their individuality. Ultimate states may encompass both union and seperation without contradiction. Paradise is usually understood as an outward form of existence and Liberation as an inward state of being. There can be coexistence between the two states of union and seperation.
Footnote:
The Buddhist teaching of two bodies—the Dharmakāya (formless ultimate body) and the Sambhogakāya (bliss-body in heavenly realms)—later developed into the doctrine of the three bodies (Trikāya), adding the Nirmāṇakāya, the manifested body through which enlightened beings appear in the world to guide those still in saṃsāra.
Q: Is Paradise the ultimate state, or Liberation (Moksha)?
A:
Both traditions can agree that at the highest level of reality, there is only the One formless, infinite Absolute. The Hindu concept of Moksha (Liberation) is our return to this state of oneness, like a drop merging back into the sea. This alone represents absolute Reality—the supreme state. Everything below it, even Paradise, belongs to the domain of relativity.
Paradise is best understood as the most exalted and sublime state within relativity (māyā in Sanskrit). To say relativity is to say multiplicity and distinctions between subject and object, observer and observed.
Relativity denotes the finite order, not the Infinite itself. The Vedanta teaches that when the Infinite enters the limiting conditions of the finite, the One inevitably appears as many. Form is the common denominator of all relative states; it is what determines multiplicity, individuality and separation from the One. To speak of relativity, therefore, is to speak of creation rather than the formless, uncreated, unconditioned Absolute.
Paradise, or the Garden, stands one step below this unconditioned state and is therefore subject to the cosmic conditions of space, time, and form—though in a supremely refined and expanded mode since it is the highest domain within relativity.
The Qur’an says the dwellers of Heaven receive sustenance “morning and evening” (19:62), implying rhythms of duration even in Paradise, not just spatial Gardens. This parallels Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, where heavenly worlds are described as cyclical because they exist within the "flow of forms", to use a Far Eastern expression.
Rene Guenon makes it clear that Paradise and Deliverance (Moksha) are distinct..
".. However exalted these [celestial] states may be when compared with the human state, however remote they are from it, they are still only relative, and ... should not be confused with the final goal... by comparison with it everything else is only a preparatory step. The highest objective is the absolutely unconditioned state, free from all limitation.. The attainment of this state is what the Hindu doctrine calls "Deliverance"... far from being a kind of annihilation, as some Westerners believe, this final state is, on the contrary, absolute plenitude, the supreme reality in the face of which all else remains illusion." Source: Lings, Martin. The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy (p. 104-5).
Footnote
It is interesting to note that the sensual delights described in the Muslim Paradise —wine, maidens, and music—are also present in Hindu and Buddhist understandings of the heavenly realms. This is only problematic for those imbibed with a Western education where the spiritual and the sensual are mutually exclusive.
Q: Is Paradise a physical place, or a state of consciousness?
A:
What follows may seem to contradict everything said earlier—much like the writings of Ibn ʿArabī, where each new page appears to oppose the last. Is Paradise a physical place or a state of consciousness? This question rests on the assumption that physical reality and consciousness are fundamentally separate. Traditional metaphysics would say that this is a false dichotomy.
It can be argued that consciousness itself gives rise to the physical world we currently experience and will experience hereafter. That is to say that consciousness and external reality are one and interconnected. The Islamic tradition gestures toward this insight in the saying: “People are asleep; when they die, they awaken.” There are many levels of awakening and dreaming.
When religions teach that Paradise is intensely more real than this world and that this life, in comparison, will feel like a fleeting hazy dream in comparison is to say precisely that Paradise corresponds to a higher state of consciousness.
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