ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Chandogya-Upanisad story about Indra and Virocana, king of the gods (devas) and chieftain of the antigods, who come to Prajapati, 'father of everything created', to learn from him about the atman, one's core-selfhood. The ideal of retrieving one's selfhood, concealed between the lines of one's phenomenal existence, is related in the Upanisadic literature to the notion of freedom; freedom from the worldly aspects of one's being, which involve bondage and suffering. The chapter offers a close reading of the Upanisadic story, and deals with Arindam Chakrabarti's paper 'Is liberation (moksa) pleasant?' It argues that in the present Upanisad the preyas and the sreyas are closely related, and freedom involves what Chakrabarti refers to as 'positive joy'. An intriguing aspect of Chakrabarti's question about moksa as a state of happiness is that it challenges the common depiction of moksa as an existential position beyond duskha and sukha, suffering and happiness, or in fact, beyond every duality whatsoever.
