Moksha is last in the Hindu scheme of values, for it ought to be the final and supreme aspiration of man. In a well-lived life, young boys and girls attend to accomplishments like learning; in youth, enjoyment should be the principal aim; in later life, one should pursue the ideals of virtue and spiritual liberation. Moksha is this desire to be free of the endless cycle of transmigration that traps the spirit. The Upanishads tell us that there is nothing higher than people, but people are not mere assemblages of body, life, and mind born of and subject to physical nature.

The natural half-animal being is not a person's whole or real being; it is but the instrument for the use of spirit that is the truth of their being. It is the ultimate aim, the final good, and as such is set over and above the other three. Artha, kama, and dharma, known as the trivarga, or “group of three,” are the pursuits of the world; each implies its own orientation or life philosophy, and to each a special literature is dedicated.

But by far the greatest measure of Indian thought, research, teaching, and writing has been concerned with the supreme spiritual theme of liberation from ignorance and the passions of the world's general illusion. Mok-sha, from the root muc,“to loose, set free, let go, release, liberate, deliver, to leave, abandon, quit,” means “liberation.” These terms suggest the highest end of man as conceived by Hinduism.