Yudhisthira on Emancipation
There are two well-known paths (for us), viz, the path of the Pitris
and the path of the gods. They that perform sacrifices go by the
Pitri-path, while they that are for salvation, go by the god-path. By
penances, by Brahmacharya, by study (of the Vedas), the great Rishis,
casting off their bodies, proceed to regions that are above the power
of death. Worldly enjoyments have been styled as bonds. They have also
been called action. Liberated from these two sins (viz, bonds and
action) one attains to the highest end. ….As a person on the hill-top
looketh down upon men on the plain below, so he that has got up on the
top of the mansion of knowledge, seeth people grieving for things that
do not call for grief. He, however, that is of foolish understanding,
does not see this. He who, casting his eyes on visible things, really
seeth them, is said to have eyes and understanding. The faculty called
understanding is so called because of the knowledge and comprehension
it gives of unknown and incomprehensible things. He who is acquainted
with the words of persons that are learned, that are of cleansed
souls, and that have attained to a state of Brahma, succeeds in
obtaining great honours. When one seeth creatures of infinite
diversity to be all one and the same to be but diversified emanations
from the same essence, one is then said to have attained Brahma. Those
who reach this high state of culture attain to that supreme and
blissful end, and not they who are without knowledge, or they who are
of little and narrow souls, or they who are bereft of understanding,
or they who are without penances. Indeed, everything rests on the
(cultivated) understanding!’
Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XVII
Bhisma/Suka on emancipation
Bhishma continued [Suka said],’..By knowledge, one attains to that
whither there is no occasion for grief; whither one becomes freed from
birth and death; whither one is not subject to decrepitude; whither
one transcends the state of conscious existence; whither is Brahma
which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible,
above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction;
whither all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites
(like pleasure and pain, etc), as also wish or purpose. Reaching that
stage, they cast equal eyes on everything, becoming universal friends
and devoted to the good of all the creatures.’
Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCXLI
Another description of Moksha is given in Mahabharata:
When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga,
become as fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain,
then are they said to be in Yoga. When one does not hear, and smell,
and taste, and see; when one is not conscious of any touch; when one’s
mind becomes perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not
conscious of anything, when one cherishes no thought; when one becomes
like a piece of wood, then is one called by the wise to be in perfect
Yoga. At such a time one shines like a lamp that burns in a place
where there is no wind; at such a time one becomes freed even from
one’s subtle form, and perfectly united with Brahma. When one attains
to such progress, one has no longer to ascend or to fall among
intermediate beings. When persons like ourselves say that there has
been a complete identification of the Knower, the Known, and
Knowledge, then is the Yogin said to behold the Supreme Soul.
Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCVII