The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2640 page)

see
A
KARA
.

 
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(Skt., ‘bodiless’ + ‘liberation’).
Mok
a
through knowledge that one is not one's body but rather
tman
. One becomes in consequence disembodied or discarnate.

 
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(Skt.)
or vijja
(P
li). ‘Knowledge’, the total and integral knowledge which precedes and comes after the incomplete non-knowledge (
avidy
) or ignorance which binds people to the wheel of transmigration (
sa
s
ra
). Vidy
penetrates
m
y
and thus enables us to apprehend all things (however apparently different) as they really are. In Hinduism, it is of two types:

(i) apara-vidy
, lower knowledge, acquired through intellect;
(ii) para-vidy
, higher, spiritual knowledge, leading to enlightenment and liberation (
mok
a
).

Vidy
is defined more precisely than
jñ
na
, which also means knowledge. There were originally four branches of vidy
: tray