Salvation for a Hindu is called ‘Moksha’. Moksha is when an enlightened human being is freed from the cycle of life-and-death (the endless cycle of death and reincarnation) and comes into a state of completeness. He then becomes one with God. Thus, the spiritual goal of a Hindu is to become one with Brahma. This freedom is referred to as moksha. Until moksha is achieved, a Hindu believes that he/she will be repeatedly reincarnated in order that he/she may work towards self-realization of the truth.
Moksha means liberation in Sanskrit, and is described as the state when the atman gains salvation. When God liberates a soul from the wheel of karma and merges it into himself, the atman achieves moksha. The Vedas, sacred Hindu scriptures, describe some methods to help a human attain moksha:
Gnana Yoga (The Path of Knowledge): Spiritual knowledge leading to the knowledge of the relationship between the soul (atman) and God (Brahman). This requires using your mind and philosophy to come to a complete comprehension of the Universe. Here, some are intellectual and rational and like to use their intelligence to find God.
Dhyana Yoga (The Path of Meditation): The idea is to concentrate so you can reach the real self within you and become one with Brahman. This method of reaching salvation is typically only used by wandering monks. In this, there are also some who are introspective and like to use concentration and find God.
Bhakti Yoga (The Path of Devotion): Choosing a particular God or Goddess and worshipping them throughout your life in actions, words or deeds. Salvation is reached through acts of worship, based upon the love for a God since there are thousands of Gods in Hinduism. Here, there are others who just fall in love and devotion with God.
Karma Yoga (The Path of Good Works): This involves doing all your duties correctly throughout your life. This involves carrying out certain religious ceremonies, duties and rites. The objective is to perform works without regard for personal gain. In this, some people like to be very active and they love to serve others.
Each of these ways to salvation in Hinduism requires that a person do certain things. Salvation is through what a Hindu does. It is through human works. No one method is better than others. They are not exclusive of each other. The method we choose should reflect our own character and abilities. Hindus believe that after we die, we are reborn. This cycle of being born again and again is called reincarnation. Most of us cannot remember anything about our past lives but there are some who can remember. The most important thing that comes with us when we are reborn is our character. That is why we see children born in the same family with such different character traits. That is the reason why some children are born as geniuses - they had developed their skills in past lives. Can we be reborn as a butterfly? Some think that this would be fun, but it is highly unlikely.
We start off being born as a lower being like the plant but we slowly evolve and are reborn as higher and higher beings until we become human. It would be difficult to be reborn as a lower being after we have developed a human character. Can we stop being reborn? Yes, only after we find God. That is the final destination. We have to reach God to stop this cycle of rebirth. This is called moksha.
The purpose of life is to seek liberation but the challenges in this quest are many and difficult surmount. The paths mentioned above are suggested as possible means towards liberation. Of these, Bhakti is shown to be accessible to a majority of people but this too has its difficulty level in terms of sincerity and humility. But it has the guarantee of salvation if practiced in its true form.
Divine grace is crucial to man’s redemption from bondage. A spiritual seeker has to make efforts to progress towards the goal of liberation by adopting the means to God realization prescribed by the scriptures but his efforts will meet with success only with God’s grace. This is the Lord’s spontaneous gesture towards suffering humanity. He is the abode of compassion and waits with expectation for His devotee to reform.
A mother’s unconditional love for her child is proverbial and traditional asserts that God’s loving compassion for mankind cannot be compared to even that of a crore mothers. The ultimate aim of every Jeevatma is to get liberated from the cycle of birth. This is attainable through pure devotion.