According to Vedanta, all human achievements fall into two broad categories: a) attainment of not-yet-attained (apraptasya prapati), and b) attainment of the already attained (praptasya prapati). Vedanta divides all human goals into four, called purusharthas: dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. The first three human pursuits — dharma, artha, kama: ethics, security, and pleasure — belong to the first category. They require effort in time and space and can only produce finite result(s). The fourth human goal, moksha or spiritual freedom, then perhaps belongs to the second category and is ever-attained - only hidden from the seeker by mere self-ignorance. And all quest for moksha is like the search of the proverbial possessor of glasses looking for glasses when glasses have been on his nose all along! If moksha were the product of human efforts, it will then fall in the first category and be still finite and limited. As the Mundaka Upanisad (1.2.12) states, ‘nothing that is Eternal can be produced by what is not eternal.’ The goal of moksha, therefore, is ever-attained; it is only hidden from the seeker because of self-ignorance.
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