The Four Stages of Liberation
Advaita Vedanta describes four progressive stages of liberation (Jnana Bhumika) — from initial discrimination through established liberation — providing a map of the spiritual journey.
Various Advaita texts describe stages of spiritual development culminating in full liberation. The Yoga Vasistha describes seven stages (Jnana Bhumikas): (1) Subheccha (good desire — the genuine wish to be free); (2) Vicharana (inquiry — serious intellectual investigation of reality); (3) Tanumanasa (attenuation of mind — the mind becoming less gross, more transparent); (4) Sattvapatti (attainment of pure Sattva — a preponderance of clarity and equanimity); (5) Asamsakti (non-attachment — the natural non-clinging that follows from genuine recognition); (6) Padartha Abhavana (non-perception of objects as separate from consciousness — the world is seen as Brahman); (7) Turiya Ga (established in Turiya — the permanent condition of the Jivanmukta). Stages 1-3 are Sadhaka (practitioner — still working toward recognition); stages 4-7 are Siddha (accomplished — established in recognition to varying degrees). The Mandukya Karika's Gaudapada uses a simpler map: Asparsha Yoga (the yoga of non-contact — consciousness established in its own nature, not touching the apparent world of multiplicity).
Progress through the stages of knowledge — each stage a deeper recognition, until only Brahman remains, knowing itself as all.
Philosopher Ken Wilber's integral spiritual practice model — integrating multiple dimensions (cognitive, emotional, ethical, somatic, relational) in spiritual development — represents a contemporary elaboration of the Vedantic insight that liberation unfolds across multiple dimensions of the practitioner's life, not only in the intellectual recognition of Brahman.
Yoga Vasistha