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Liberation According to Sāmkhya and Vedānta
No sooner does the Purusha [Spirit] close its eyes than Prakriti [Cosmos] ceases to work for it, though there are hundreds of other souls who will come under its influence. Liberation is the turning away of the eye of the soul from the cosmic picture, but Prakriti will never the destroyed, because there will always be plenty of souls who are ready to be enchanted. In Kapila’s philosophy, Kaivalya, or liberation (literally ‘aloofness” [or isolation]), is the gift of Prakriti. Kaivalya is freedom from pain and sorrow.
Vedānta has treated the same subject from a very different point of view. Unlike the Sāmkhya, Vedānta recognizes one only Reality, the nature of which is truth and joy. Brahman is the truth of truth, the joy of joy. By the side of Brahman there is no other existence, no other bliss, and no other reality. Whenever we say “yea,” our voices echo the voice of that Eternal Yea; about Brahman we can only say “ OM” (Yea).
Brahman’s truth is revealed in higher knowledge and reflected in lower knowledge; in higher knowledge Brahman is the very freedom of eternity. Brahman is complete and perfect and blissful. Brahman cannot be understood, because He is the understanding itself. He cannot be enjoyed, because He is the essence of joy, attributeless and impersonal, independent and self-sufficient. Brahman is not to be thought of as the cause of creation, for He is without motive and there is nothing outside of Him to create. He is all-embracing, all-conscious, and all-complete. He is only to be indicated by the word OM (Yea). This Brahman is to be known in higher knowledge.
Swami Ananda Acharya, Brahmadarsanam: Intuition of the Absolute, Being an Introduction to the Study of Hindu Philosophy (London: Macmillan & Co., 1917), pp. 152-153