Purpose of life, The conflict of Dharma and Moksha.

For a Hindu there are two lower or physical goals of life and two higher goals.

The lower goals are kama (love) and artha (wealth). The higher goals are Dharma (Duty) and Moksha (Salvation).

Westerners typically indicate this being the religious pursuit. However this is not a religious goal but merely a philosophy of life just like you have the human resource theory of Maslow's hierarchical needs which start from the lowest physiological needs to the self actualization need.

1) Kama means love. The love here refers to the physical attraction and doesn't refer to the love or devotion one feels towards God.

The Kamasutra or the book of love making has achieved infamous popularity in the west. Many westerners think of this as being a religious book taught at the temple. The orientalist British would raise their eyebrows and use this as a reason to put Hinduism as a degenerate immoral society. Even Wendy Doniger in her book Hindus, an Alternative History states that this book being very popular among the Indians. She quoted that Brahmins would read the Vedas in the morning and would read the Kamasutra at night with their spouse.

Please note that neither of these are true. The Kamasutra was written not as a religious book but as a book for professionals. This book was primarily read by the concubines and the courtesans of the Kings and the rich noblemen who would practice the principles in the book.

For the ordinary folk especially Brahmins it was and still is taboo. The Brahmin community especially served as exemplars to the rest of the people. This is another example of western scholars categorizing everything written in India as being part of the Hindu religion and attempting to put Hinduism down. There are several books on science that were written outside of the religious canon, such as Ayurveda, etc.

2) Artha: Artha means wealth, but it can also refer to power, status and respect in society. There is a great book called ArthaShastra by Kautilya that documents the science of keeping power. This has been compared to the Art of War by Sun Tzu and the Prince by Machiavelli.

Although the above two are referred to as pursuits, typically they serve as distractions for people who are looking to serve the important goals namely dharma or to perform one's duty or one seeking Moksha. In fact there are many stories in the Puranas of ascetics meditating to obtain Moksha and how Indra would send the heavenly damsels to distract them. Both Artha and Kama are referred to as works of Maya, which means illusion. They are temporary and don't last. The ones who pursue them are not aware of the true nature of reality.

Only the pursuit of Dharma and Moksha are the true pursuits of life.

3) Dharma: Hinduism originally divided the people into 4 varnas or castes. Each Varna had a specific duty to the community and that was the Dharma of that particular Caste.

For the Brahmins, the learned and the priestly caste it was important to perform rituals for the well being of the entire community. Thus it was important that they study the Vedas, perform sacrifices and other rituals, teach the rest of the community, maintain the temples, etc.
They also served as examples for the entire community. They were forbidden from consuming meat and had to keep fasts and several other rituals. They also had to maintain purity both physical and ritual purity. This is because they were communicating with the Gods when performing rituals or as priests they were the ones who would touch the idols, bathe them, perform poojas etc.


For the Kshatriya or the warrior and Kings, it was important to maintain law and order and to protect the kingdom from its enemies. This was an important caste, it even states that without a King it would be the law of the fishes i.e. might is right.

The Vaishya or the business and the trading community, it was important to conduct the business, collect taxes, maintain land etc.

The Shudras or the working people were responsible for various jobs from working in the field to being barbers and shoe makers. There are a number of Jatis within this group and each Jati for one particular function e.g. there is a jati for tailors, potters etc. The advantage being that the trade secrets for the profession would only be known to the members of that community.

Westerners typically condemn the caste system as being too restrictive and oppressive. But in reality, although it is outdated in today's modern world, the caste system provided an amazing stability for the different professions. E.g. only a shoe maker's son could become a shoe maker. Thus he didn't have to worry about finding a job like we have to do in a democratic society.

For women the duty was to raise the family, take care of the house, the kitchen, the elders and so on.

Thus for each member of the community, they had a particular duty to serve and this was his/her dharma. By performing one's duty well, he/she is doing good karma and is expected to be rewarded in this or the next life.

4) Moksha: This is the highest pursuit of life and leads to liberation from samsara or the cycle of birth and death.

A distinct class of people called sadhus in India, started moving away from the cities and villages and dwelling in the forests, meditating and seeking answers to questions. The concept of moksha or liberation came from these people.

Buddha and Mahavira founded Buddhism and Jainism respectively by following the paths of these sadhus or rishis in the forests. Both these religions promoted the aspect of liberation by meditation and by giving up everything one owns. Desire became a key word. As I mentioned earlier Kama and Artha were considered as two desires that one should avoid and seek the pursuit of Moksha or Nirvana (the Buddhist and Jaina term for liberation).

As a result more and more people started leaving their houses in pursuit of Moksha. There was a need to preserve order and continuity in society.

Now I come to an important topic that is the argument of Dharma and Moksha.
There were philosophers or proponents of Dharma who came up with many arguments for the preservation of Dharma.

Here is a story that was told to highlight why one needs to follow Dharma.

The story goes that a man leaves to the forest leaving his family in the pursuit of Moksha. He comes across a place where he finds his ancestors hanging upside down and hanging just by a string with a bottomless dark pit below. His ancestors tell him that since the man left his dharma i.e. his duty towards his community and to raise a family, they cannot be reborn and hence will have to end up in a bottomless pit for eternity. The man goes back and starts a family to preserve his dharma. (It is generally believed that a person is reborn in his own family lineage sometimes also referred to as one's Gothram)


Here is a counter argument from the proponents of Moksha.

The story goes that a man performs his duty very well and is rewarded with life in heaven. He asks Indra if his good life in heaven would last forever. Indra replies that it would only last until the benefits of his Karma last. After that he would have to go back to earth and be reborn as a human being. The only thing that lasts forever is Moksha. Thus it was generally agreed that it was the highest pursuit to obtain Moksha which could be obtained only by meditating in the forest. However it was also necessary to preserve the continuity of the human race and the civilization.

Two alternative philosophies were proposed to address this

1) Varnashrama Dharma: This divides life into 4 stages. The first stage being that of a student and the objective is to obtain knowledge typically for the profession or caste that one will perform. This is the knowledge or the Vidya stage of life. The second stage is that of a householder. One has to marry, start a family, at the same time serve the community by performing the duties or the dharma for his/her caste. The third stage is that of retirement, when one's children have grown up he along with his wife would move to a smaller dwelling and live a humble life, performing prayers and offering devotion to their deities. This is the Bhakti phase of life. Finally one leaves everything and dwells in the forest for pure meditation to attain Moksha. Thus this philosophy allowed for individuals to obtain Moksha at the same time serve the community or the Dharma.


2) Then we have the Bhagavad Gita that prescribes a method to obtain Moksha while obtaining knowledge, performing one's dharma or by performing bhakti.

The philosophy is that one should obtain knowledge selflessly i.e. knowledge for the sake of obtaining knowledge.

It also calls for one to perform one's duties selflessly without attachment to the rewards (which are either in the form of Artha or Kama). It is called Karma Yoga or the path of duty. This is probably one of the most well known and most quoted philosophies of Hinduism.

Finally we have the path of Devotion or Bhakti Yoga, which is worship or any deity or idol with pure love and devotion and without attachments or seeking rewards. There is no particular deity that is specified, any form can be worshipped as long as it is done with devotion and purity. This gave rise to the concept of Ishta Devata, i.e. to worship the supreme God via a chosen image or deity. It also states that formless worship is acceptable but it is extremely hard to perform and to concentrate. This maybe seen as aimed towards the Ten Commandments of Judaism which specifically prohibits idol worship and was written around the same time maybe slightly before the Bhagavad Gita.

The path of meditation is not frowned upon, but the Bhagavad Gita states that it is a harder path and there are easier ways to obtain moksha than to surrender to the forest and perform meditation.

Also if you compare to the Varnashrama Dharma, the Gita states that one can obtain Moksha in the first 3 stages of life itself only if one performs these acts selflessly.

Hindus follow the Bhagavad Gita closely than any other book in the Hindu scriptures. Also a combination of the yogas are followed so one follows the Nyaana yoga and Bhakti yoga as a student and later on follows the Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

Stages of Consciousness

Since consciousness is the basis of all reality, any shift in consciousness changes every aspect of our reality. Reality is created by consciousness differentiating into cognition, moods, emotions, perceptions, behaviour, speech, social interactions, environment, interaction with the forces of nature, and biology. As consciousness evolves, these different aspects of consciousness also change.

Although every spiritual tradition speaks of higher states of consciousness it is especially in Vedanta that we find such a structured map of these stages of development. The average person only experiences three states of consciousness in an entire lifetime. These are deep sleep, dreams, and waking state of consciousness. The brain functions measurably different in each of these states. Brain biology and brain waves show precise and different characteristics between sleep, dream, and waking states of consciousness.

1) Deep sleep: Deep sleep you also have a certain reality. If I scream at you, you will react. You have a degree of awareness, if your child is crying and you are the mother you will immediately respond. Spirit is in state of surveillance even in deep sleep and spirit creates a physiology for that moment.

2) Dreams: Repertoire of experience. Stories are being weaved by the Karmic software and when we are dreaming it is very real. No one can convince us that is was not real. It is only when we wake up we realize that it is not real and it was only a dream. The insight that is not a dream happens only when we wake up from the dream.

3) Vedanta says when you wake up from that dream you enter another dream that is what is called the waking state of consciousness. Presumably you are in that right now. You are in the waking state of consciousness you are participating in it without knowing that it is ephemeral or transitory. That is why you get caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria and the anxiety of the dream . You will remain in it until you wake up from it and get insight that aha! it was an amazing state.

Spiritual practice or sadhana begins the process by which an individual transforms his or her consciousness from these three common states of consciousness into " higher states" of consciousness.

You wake up from the “waking state” and when you have the first glimpse of the soul. Walt Whitman said I must not be awake as everything looks to me as it never did before. Else I am awake now and all that occurred before was just a dream. Gautam Buddha said “the lifestyle of ours is as transient as the autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movement of a dance a lifetime is like the flash of lightning in the sky rushing by like a torrent from the steep mountain. Now I am awake (meaning of the word Buddha), waking up from the insubstantial reality and glimpsing into the soul. You can glimpse into the soul. Example turn your attention to who is listening, there is a presence there and it is not your mind. The ever present witnessing awareness is the soul. As you peel the layers even in dreams and even in wakefulness, you see a body out there you can witness it. You can witness it now without experiencing death.

Through of any of the four primary yoga practices (the yogas of being, feeling, thinking, doing) the mind is led past its conditioned states to its pure unconditioned state. Beyond the first 3 states of consciousness are the following four states: Soul consciousness, Cosmic consciousness, Divine consciousness and Unity consciousness. As each state of consciousness unfolds within us, it opens us into a newer more expanded reality. Let's discuss each of these in turn:

1) Soul consciousness is the state we experience when our internal reference point shifts from body, mind, and ego, to the observer of body, mind, and ego. We experience and cultivate Soul consciousness when we meditate. This observer is referred to as the witnessing awareness. During meditation, a person begins to identify with this aspect of the Self which is beyond thinking and feeling, (the silent witness), and then he or she begins to feel more calm, centered and intuitive in daily life. As the authentic core of oneself solidifies, there is less emotional drama in their lives. Relationships are more loving and compassionate and one finds a deeper more caring relationship with the environment and nature. With the experience of the silent witness, the biology will also reflect greater balance and the activation of homeostatic mechanisms. Meditation has been shown to lead to the reduction of stress markers, slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, enhanced immune function, and orderly and precise self-repair mechanisms. Those who practice meditation are less prone to sickness.

2) Cosmic consciousness is the state when soul consciousness gets stabilized and the witnessing awareness is present all the time in waking, dreaming, and sleeping states. This state of consciousness is sometimes described in traditions as being both local and non-local simultaneously. The silent witness Self is unbounded, but the body and the conditioned mind is localized. In the Christian tradition the phrase "to be in the world and not of it," describes this flavor of Cosmic consciousness. In this state, even during deep sleep, the witnessing awareness is fully awake and there is the realization that one is not the mind/body, which is in the field of change, but rather an eternal spirit that transcends space and time. The most remarkable aspect of this state of consciousness is the knowledge of one's nature as timeless and therefore no fear of death. Although Cosmic consciousness is not the pinnacle of enlightenment, nevertheless it marks the critical transition from an identity bound to a conditioned life, to a life of freedom in self-knowledge.

3) Divine consciousness is the expansion of cosmic consciousness where the ever-present witnessing awareness is experienced not only in the silence of the Self, but also in the most abstract qualities of nature and the mind. Dormant potentials such as the awakening of the nonlocal senses (referred to in Sanskrit as tanmatras) begin to be experienced. As the individual mind starts to access these unused realms of the psyche, they will activate extraordinary spiritual abilities previously thought to be unattainable. These include experiences such as knowledge of past and future, clairvoyance, refined sense of taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing, control over bodily functions, heart rate, and autonomic functions. In other words, objects are experienced simultaneously on a gross sensory level and subtle more abstract level. Appreciation of life from this more refined perspective represents the real engagement of the heart and love as the engine of spiritual growth at this stage. By experiencing the patterns and deeper connections that underlie external diversity, we find our soul is stirred by a profound sense of beauty, awe, compassion, gratitude and love. The integrating power of these qualities brings together the polarized world of Cosmic consciousness which is divided between the Self and non-Self. In Divine Consciousness this harmonizing and synthesizing power is felt as the presence of Divinity in our heart. Wherever one goes one feels the presence of the Divine. The Vedic seers would say in Divine consciousness, God is not difficult to find, but impossible to avoid. At this stage, there is an even greater conviction of the immortality of existence, not only as nonlocal consciousness, but also in the knowledge that you are that enduring presence of divine love. Divine consciousness also brings a deeper experience of liberation, as the external sensory world is no longer seen as a kind of spiritual exile which the soul must endure, but rather the world is a manifestation of the beauty, and love of one's consciousness and therefore integral to one's spirituality.

4) Unity consciousness is also referred to as Brahman consciousness. It is a state of consciousness where the ever-present witness is not just recognized as the core Self of one's existence, it is now perceived as the primary reality of every experience. You, as the observer, are that pure consciousness. The process of observation is also that consciousness. And the object of observation is that same pure consciousness. The culmination of enlightenment is the knowledge that consciousness alone exists, that is all there is , was, or ever will be. That oneness, or unity, dominates awareness even as one engages in the same mundane details of life as before. One ceases to identify with an individual body-mind apparatus and sees the whole universe as one's physical body. Of course, there is a personal body and there is a material universe, experienced through the senses, but they are now cognized to be incorporated in that one single reality of consciousness.

Dormant potentials previously mentioned are now fully operative. There is the ability to heal and transform others and everything is experienced as miraculous. A flower is seen as a flower but is also experienced as rainbows and sunshine and earth and water and wind and air and the infinite void and the whole history of the universe swirling and transiently manifesting as the flower. In other worlds every object is seen as the total universe transiently manifesting as a particular object. And behind the scenes one can feel the presence of the same ever-present witnessing awareness that is now in both subject and object. Unity consciousness is the ultimate level of freedom from fear. It is characterized by an abiding sense of joy and peace. There is no "other" outside of oneself to be afraid of, and the constant dance of unity masquerading as diversity is seen as the blissful nature of life itself. All of creation is seen as the play of consciousness or leela.

This state of enlightenment is sometimes compared to the drop of water that is experiencing itself as the ocean, knowing that it was the ocean the whole time. You and God are now one because there is no you left any more. Sometimes when people try to conceptualize this by projecting their current sense of self into Unity consciousness they are afraid that in losing their old identity they will lose their existence, memories and individual perspective. But the enlightened person doesn't' see it that way. They understand that personal identity was an illusion to begin with. They realize that nothing real or valuable is ever lost on the path to enlightenment. They are experiencing their original identity but only now recognizing it in its completeness and its full glory. This state is of course described in the Vedantic tradition but is beautifully captured in the following verses from T.S. Elliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

This brief outline of higher states of consciousness is only intended to give a general sense of the unfolding of human potential. It is important to emphasize that spiritual development is not fundamentally an intellectual or a faith-driven enterprise. Enlightenment is not attained by reading and studying, nor by fervent belief in something outside yourself. The development of higher states of consciousness primarily comes down to regularly and systematically experiencing deeper values of the Self and then integrating that into one's daily life. The specific experiences an individual has on this journey, will necessarily vary, based on the spiritual tradition and practice one follows, but also based upon your own personal history and tendencies.

Reference: Deepak Chopra's texts

Summary of Vedanta - excerpt from Deepak Chopra's video

In this blog I would like to highlight the Vedantic perspective and provide a summary of the key Vedantic philosophies. Some of the material is from Deepak Chopra's video on God and Buddha.

Vedanta is the great wisdom tradition of India that goes back to at least 1500 BC. Authors are the great rishis who spent several eras of time thinking about various questions and developed sophisticated philosophies to explain the meaning of life.

During the 1st millennium of common era the people in the Indian subcontinent began to discard the simple teachings and stories of Gods and miraculous mythologies and the first level of God. Survival became easy and relatively more organized. Decided that the human being need not fear reality but was at a point where he was able to understand and question reality.

Veda means knowledge and Vedanta literally means the end of knowledge. Vedanta says that there are 5 reasons why human beings suffer, these are called Kleshas in Sanskrit.

1. Not knowing the true nature of reality.
   
2. Clinging to or grasping or holding to that which is ephemeral transitory or not real.
   
3. Aversion to, revulsion to, running away from, fear of that which is insubstantial transitory, ephemeral or not real.
   
4. Identification with a false and constricted and habitual self i.e. ego
   Fear of death.
   

All other causes of suffering can be somehow related to these five.

And all of these 5 causes of suffering are contained in the first one i.e. not knowing the true nature of reality.

The only cause of suffering is not knowing the true nature of reality.

Essence of Buddhism is the alleviation of suffering and not the abstractions of reincarnation. Buddhism is a practical religion and doesn’t delve into abstractions. Buddhism answers the question "What is the cause of human suffering and what is the way out of it ?"

The true nature of reality: The true nature of reality is Brahman. If you ask someone to describe it, he/she can’t. He/She would refer to it as “that”, or in Sanskrit “Thath”. Vedanta says I am that you are that and that is ... That is infinite, eternal, dynamic, ineffable, silent, infinite intelligence, infinite dynamism.

And this Brahman projects itself as the physical universe (including you and me) through the power of Maya. Maya technically means measurement, although translated sometimes referred to as illusion. Because you are trying to measure is the infinite. Through the measurement of infinite you give birth to the concept of time. Maya, meter, time, measurement, music, matter refer to the womb of creation.

The unbounded womb of creation which projects itself through the concept of Maya to the realm of space time and causation. It does so through the web of karma. Karma is the result of our past actions on an individual level, a collective level and also on a deeper more mythical level. The remnants of Karma, our past actions are like seeds in our consciousness. And these remnants of Karma constantly actualize into our consciousness into our subjective experience. They are just the seeds of the past experience. They are not memories themselves but they are virtual memories, just like you have virtual protons and virtual particles. They are not part of our brain, but are part of the software of our soul.

A person who wrote Reagan’s biography stated one incident, apparently Mr. Reagan came from a therapy session. Someone had left a toy white house. Mr. Reagan tried to clutch onto a toy white house. When asked he said “I don’t know what it is but I think it is something to do with me”.

In Sanskrit it is called Samskara, or potential memory or the remnant of Karma. We all have spiritual alzheimers. We have this faint memory that somewhere there is a soul here, we know it has something to do with me but we don’t know what it is. Bible states “ what good does it do a man to find the whole world but to lose one’s soul”.

Losing the soul we begin to have the experience of suffering.

The karmic software which is actualizing into our consciousness it appears as our thoughts, our own memories, desires, feelings and emotions. During the daytime, rational mind, it weaves stories around the Karmic software, it does so quite logically at least to the rational mind and we live out these stories we call them “everyday reality”. Same thing happens at night but the rational mind is asleep, so there is not a consistent logic to these stories at night and we call them dreams. Vedanta says the mechanics of the dream and the waking state of consciousness is the same.

One is being given a rationalization and other is not. It is just the karmic software that is appearing in your consciousness and is making stories out of them and you are living these stories out and you get so caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria of the stories that you forget who you are.

It is like going to a good movie and getting lost in the movie. The only way to come out of the tangled hierarchy, the seer loses itself in the scenery, the lover loses himself/herself in the beloved, the knower in knowledge and so forth. Never remembering that there is a timeless factor in the midst of the experience. All experience is time bound, a beginning a middle and an ending. In the midst of all this there is a timeless factor it is the experiencer. The Experiencer is the eye inside. Not the personal eye but the collective eye and the universal eye.

There are six stages of Awareness or consciousness. All of reality is a projection of which state of consciousness you are in. Depending on which state of consciousness you are in you project a certain state of reality. If I peel beneath the layers of my soul I will go beyond my constricted fabrication, the constricted self identity that I have and will realize who I really am. And this is the essence of Vedanta.

Vedanta says there are 4 ways to do it

1) Karma yoga: Be always reminding yourself that no matter what you are doing you are not doing it. It is God, God does everything and this is the machinery through which the divine intelligence is working. The essence of Karma yoga is to be established in being and perform action. Yogasth Gurukarma Karmaniyasth as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita.
2) Through love or the experience of love. This is bhakti yoga or devotion. It is the simplest and the most enjoyable but it gets you to the same place. Love is the ultimate reality and the ultimate truth in the heart of creation. We are all the same being but in different disguises. Once we realize that it becomes impossible to hurt or be hurt. What the Buddha refers to as compassion is really the experiential knowledge of love as the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
3) Raja Yoga i.e. meditation and its allied disciplines. Different types of ways to dive between the gaps of our thoughts, or go beyond the secret passages and the dark alleys of our minds and find the part of ourselves that does not die.
4) Nyaana Yoga: Intellectual approach, razor’s edge i.e. to use the intellect to go beyond the intellect. That itself is a paradox but it is possible. To go beyond the rational mind.

That is the summary of Vedanta and all the 112 Upanishads talk about these few principles.

If one has gotten close to the event horizon which is called enlightenment then that experiential knowledge of immortality solves all suffering. Because you find out who you really are. As the Sufi poet Rumi said in one of his poems “By God when you see beauty you will be idol of yourself”.

Introduction to Hinduism

Hinduism is probably one of the oldest religions that is still practiced by over 800 million people in India. The term Hindu was coined by the moslems to refer to the people from the Indus valley.

Study of Hinduism is often very complicated since new ideas evolved without discarding the older ideas that are not relevant or had been discarded. As one author on Hinduism put it, "Hinduism can be best related to a collector who keeps collecting things without discarding the old."

There are two significant works of Hindu literature that I use as my source for describing Hinduism, viz. the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

Basic beliefs:

All of us are composed of a material or a physical form or the outer body and an indestructible form the Atman. All living organisms have Atman and they are connected together in a universal soul or Brahman. Atman is indestructible and is recycled, that is when we are born the Atman acquires a new body and when we die the Atman leaves the body to take on a new form. The form acquired would depend on the nature of actions. If one were involved in good actions s/he would be born in a higher level in the food chain and correspondingly if one is involved in bad actions s/he would be born in a lesser form. This is the law of Karma and we are all bound by the endless cycle of rebirth.

Although older works of literature do indicate the concept of heaven and hell, everything is only temporary. That is according to Hinduism all the creatures in the three worlds (earth, heaven and hell) are bound by Rita or the laws of nature. Even Gods such as Indra are subject to birth and death. There are only two eternal Gods, Shiva and Vishnu.

Vishnu is the preserver of Dharma in society. Mankind goes through four stages each stage increasing evil. Ultimately in the final stage Vishnu will take human or animal form, or an avatar to free mankind of the evil and establish law in society. Also the king is highly regarded, Rama being the noblest of all the kings.

"Choose a king before you choose a wife or start earning wealth, for without a king who will protect your wife and wealth"

Shiva is associated with the destroyer, the cleanser of the worlds after destruction and Brahma is the creator. In the beginning, Brahma emerges from Vishnu, and creates the three worlds. Saivites, worship the Linga or the phallus. Lingas were originally found in Harappa and Mohenjodaro indicating the worship of Shiva that predates the Aryan Hindu period.

There are two goals one can have depending on his/her motivation.

1) Dharma: Dharma means to do what you are meant to do. Perform your worldly duties which is to be part of the economy, have a family and children and be responsible for them. If one performs his/her duties well and serves the world, he/she shall be rewarded in the current life and the next.

By worshipping Vishnu or his Avataras (viz. Rama and Krishna) one can have a good life and a good afterlife. Bhagavad Gita would serve as the text for someone seeking the path of the Dharma.

To achieve salvation one must perform activities without expecting a result
The four ways (Yogas) of achieving salvation are
a) KarmaYoga: By performing ones duties without an end result which can be a reward. By excelling in our work and striving for the very best without expecting a reward, one can achieve Moksha.

b) Nyaana Yoga or Knowledge: By having a desire for knowledge and putting it into good use. By acquiring knowledge and putting it into good use, it will mature into wisdom or Bhakti. One must be humble regardless of what he/she knows or understands and be willing to divulge information to help others as needed.

c) Bhakti Yoga: By devoting oneself to a God or by becoming totally immersed in the worship of a God without expecting anything in return, one can achieve moksha. There are no rules on what God and the form of worship. Educated individuals typically choose a God and worship idols merely as points of concentration. The objective is to focus on one point and experience peace and a higher state of mind.

d) Raja Yoga: This involves living a life that is pure. Followers of Jainism follow these principles. The objective is to live and let live. By not harming other organisms and by living a life that is pure one can lead an ideal life and achieve salvation and be rewarded in the next life.

2) Moksha: This is a harder path and the ultimate result is to be free from the endless cycle of birth and death. The philosophy here is that all the souls are united in a universal soul or Brahman. By following the harder path one can achieve moksha and be forever free from rebirth and become one with Brahman or the universal soul.

"All of us are united like the honey in the honeycomb, you don't see the flowers you only see all of the honey as uniform. By achieving moksha we will see us as being part of the honey comb and not the flowers which are distinct." Human desire is the cause of suffering and everything that we experience. To be free from desire is the ultimate salvation from suffering.

Buddhist concept of Nirvana is also the same as the Hindu Moksha. According to some when one achieves Moksha he/she will have a sustained level of a higher energy state. Others describe Moksha as just a state where you cease to exist in any form. In either case you are free from the endless cycle of birth and death. To achieve Moksha one must live a life of renunciation and austerity.

There are other forms of worship such as Tantric, which involves the use of drugs and sex to achieve this higher state. These are not part of the original Hindu practice and Hinduism forbids the use of drugs or sex to achieve the higher state. One should only achieve a higher state by sustained levels of meditation and performing different Yogic practices to help in this endeavor.

I would like to devote this section to debunk a few popular misconceptions about Hinduism.

Westerners typically associate several negative connotations when it comes to Hinduism such as a pagan society that believes in multiple deities, a religion that enforces caste system, etc. However the western society often ignores the often complex yet highly developed philosophies that Hindu scholars developed.

Hinduism is a monotheistic religion and believes in one God which comprises of the universal soul Brahman. Brahman can either be worshipped as Vishnu or Shiva depending on one's objectives in life and the after life. By worshipping Vishnu one accepts the role of dharma and rebirth. And one's objective is to have a good life and a good after life. By worshipping Shiva, one's objective is freedom from the constant rebirth and achieve Moksha. Hinduism neither encourages nor discourages idol worship. For an advanced practitioner, the idols are meant purely as a point to help one concentrate during the worship. For a lower practitioner the idol may represent an actual God.

Although western religion such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism may feel that they are a superior religion due to the lack of idol worship and monotheistic culture, when it comes to philosophy Hinduism is far advanced than any religion and that explains why it has survived for over 3000 years.

You may or may not believe in a God, you may or may not worship idols. Unlike western religions there are no rules for following Hinduism.

Hinduism offers intellectual freedom, the ability to question and the flexibility to adapt to cultural changes.

There are some religions meant for intellectuals and some that are meant for the masses. While Christianity and Islam offer good solutions for the mass guided practitioners, Hinduism is meant for the independent intellectual who is interested in the pursuit of the truth.