Liberation and the Highest Good in Pre-Śaṅkara Vedic Theology

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines pre-Śaṅkara deliberations on liberation (mokṣa) and its status as the highest good (niḥśreyasa) in Vedic theology, tracing its conceptual evolution from early Mīmāṁsā to the Brahma-sūtra. It begins by situating niḥśreyasa within dharma literature, where it initially denoted general human goods before being redefined as liberation from rebirth through knowledge and renunciation. The discussion foregrounds the tension between two soteriological paradigms: the ritual-centered worldview of Mīmāṁsā, which equated the highest good with heaven (svarga), and emerging liberationist doctrines that construed action and desire as obstacles. Special attention is given to Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s two distinct accounts of liberation: one portraying it as a negative state achieved through cessation of karma and another integrating meditational knowledge of the Self with ritual obligations, anticipating later theories of jñāna-karma-samuccaya (combination of knowledge and action). The chapter concludes with Vedāntic meditation practices in the Brahma-sūtra. The analysis in the chapter illuminates how competing conceptions of the highest good structured early Brahmanical thought and laid the groundwork for Advaita Vedānta’s privileging of scriptural knowledge as the direct means of liberation.