Agony of the soul (?) etc

[Anand Hudli]

     Charles A. Hillig wrote:
>
>
>       Until we move beyond a spiritual hierarchy that seeks to stratify
> people, how can we ever experience the loving equanimity demonstrated so
> beautifully in how Maharshi lived out his life and related so
> compassionately to those around him?
>
>      You cannot really "achieve" liberation.  How can you become freer than
> you already are?  Moksha is not something to be gained, but something  only
> to be discovered.   It is always fully present.  Bondage is illusory.
>

   Does this mean that we do not have practice any discipline to "gain"
   mokshha? If we are already free then why should we?

   I think when someone says mokshha is to be gained, it means that
  impediments to the natural state of mokshha should be removed. All
  disciplines, studies, meditations, etc are meant for removing these
  obstacles which obscure the natural state. No practice will confer
  mokshha on us, but the utility of such practices should not be undermined.
  Once we realize that we are free, we will understand that bondage is
  illusory, nor before. When we dream, we do not realize that we are
  dreaming. Only when we wake up, we dismiss all the objects that we had
  seen in the dream as not real.

  The tiger in the dream is illusory, and so is the fear of it.
  But the fearful dream-tiger  caused the dream to come to an end.
  Similar is the effect of striving for mokshha. (I don't mean
  striving for mokshha is fearful. :-) )

  Anand