Moksha (/ˈmoʊkʃə/, UK also /ˈmɒkʃə/; Sanskrit: मोक्ष, mokṣa), also called vimoksha, vimukti, and mukti, is a term in Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, liberation, nirvana, or release. In its soteriological and eschatological senses, it refers to freedom from saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth. In its epistemological and psychological senses, moksha is freedom from ignorance: self-realization, self-actualization and self-knowledge.

In Hindu traditions, moksha is a central concept and the utmost aim of human life; the other three aims are dharma (virtuous, proper, moral life), artha (material prosperity, income security, means of life), and kama (pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfillment). Together, these four concepts are called Puruṣārtha in Hinduism.

In some schools of Indian religions, moksha is considered equivalent to and used interchangeably with other terms such as vimoksha, vimukti, kaivalya, apavarga, mukti, nihsreyasa, and nirvana. However, terms such as moksha and nirvana differ and mean different states between various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The term nirvana is more common in Buddhism, while moksha is more prevalent in Hinduism.

Moksha is derived from the Sanskrit root word, muc, which means to free, let go, release, liberate. According to Jain scriptures, it is a combination of two Sanskrit words, moh (attachment) and kshay (its destruction).

The definition of moksha varies between various schools of Indian religions. Moksha means freedom, liberation, but from what and how is where the schools differ. Moksha is also a concept that means liberation from rebirth or saṃsāra. For example, some traditions posit ethical action as the means to moksha, while others point to devotion or meditation. This liberation can be attained while one is on earth (jivanmukti), or eschatologically (karmamukti, videhamukti).

Moksha is a concept associated with saṃsāra (birth-rebirth cycle). Samsara originated with religious movements in the first millennium BCE. These movements such as Buddhism, Jainism and new schools within Hinduism, saw human life as bondage to a repeated process of rebirth. This bondage to repeated rebirth and life, each life subject to injury, disease and aging, was seen as a cycle of suffering. By release from this cycle, the suffering involved in this cycle also ended. This release was called moksha, nirvana, kaivalya, mukti and other terms in various Indian religious traditions but as per Hindu scripture veda one can attain mokhsha by giving up shadripu ( kama, lobha, krodha, moha, mada and matsarya). A desire for the release from pain and suffering seems to lie at the root of striving for moksha, and it is commonly believed that moksha is an otherwordly reality, only achievable at the end of life, not during. However there is also a notion that moksha can be achieved during life in the form of a state of liberation, known as jivan-mukti, although this is still reliant on personal and spiritual endeavours attributed to attaining moksha.

Eschatological ideas evolved in Hinduism. In earliest Vedic literature, heaven and hell sufficed soteriological curiosities. Over time, the ancient scholars observed that people vary in the quality of virtuous or sinful life they lead, and began questioning how differences in each person's puṇya (merit, good deeds) or pāp (demerit, sin) as human beings affected their afterlife. This question led to the conception of an afterlife where the person stayed in heaven or hell, in proportion to their merit or demerit, then returned to earth and were reborn, the cycle continuing indefinitely. The rebirth idea ultimately flowered into the ideas of saṃsāra, or transmigration – where one's balance sheet of karma determined one's rebirth. Along with this idea of saṃsāra, the ancient scholars developed the concept of moksha, as a state that released a person from the saṃsāra cycle. Moksha release in eschatological sense in these ancient literature of Hinduism, suggests van Buitenen, comes from self-knowledge and consciousness of oneness of supreme soul.

Scholars provide various explanations of the meaning of moksha in epistemological and psychological senses. For example, Deutsche sees moksha as transcendental consciousness, the perfect state of being, of self-realization, of freedom and of "realizing the whole universe as the Self".