Bhishma attains Moksha?

One question that is one is left with in the Mahabharata is whether Bhishma attained Moksha on choosing his death. His attaining Moksha would depend on

1) Krishna's will and Bhishma's devotion to Krishna
2) His suffering and working out of seeds of his karmas
3) His last thoughts


Bhishma was a devotee of Krishna. He recognized Krishna's supreme status in the Rajasuya yagna. He was very pleased when Krishna charged at him as death at the hands of the lord would liberate him. However that did not happen because Arjuna prevented Krishna from doing so. Bhishma knew that Krishna is the beginning, the middle and the end. However, despite knowing this, he was forced to fight against Krishna and his beloved disciple Arjuna in favour of the Kauravas. This was due to the seeds of his previous karmas.

The main karmas of Bhishma's life were

1) His vow of celibacy taken due to attachment to his father - This had disastrous consequences for the Bharata race. If his loyalty for Hastinapur and its subjects had been more that his attachment to his father, he would not have taken this vow that led to the ascendance of incompetent rulers to the throne. He also went overboard by saying that he would see the image of his father in any person who ruled Hastinapur. This he almost made himself a slave to the kings and bound himself to do their bidding for life.

2) The insulting of Amba - This led to her vow to kill Bhishma no matter how many lives it would take. She had done no wrong, but due to Bhishma's self-imposed vow, she was rejected, humiliated, and abandoned. This drove her to suicide.

3) The silent witnessing of draupadi's humiliation - Despite knowing that Draupadi looked up to him for protection, he sat quietly due to his own self-imposed loyalty for the King. If he had only recognized that dharma was more important than his interpretation of his vow, he could have prevented this. However this itself was a payback for his earlier karma of taking the vow.

4) His wounding in all parts of his body by Arjuna's arrows - This event is similar to the crucifixion of Christ. He had to suffer innumerable arrows and lie on a bed of arrows. This suffering led to the working out of his karmas, loss of identification with the body (and identification with the eternal soul).

This was done with the assistance of Shikhandi (Amba reincarnated) and he thus got the payback for this karma in the very life itself. The payback for the silent witnessing of draupadi's humiliation was that he had to fight for Duryodhana against his beloved Pandavas and bear the humiliations of Duryodhana and Shakuni while fighting for them when they taunted ceaselessly him for his inability to kill the Pandavas or win the war for them.

Thus Bhishma was able to face the consequences of his actions in the same life itself. Also he recognized Krishna as the Supreme being and surrendered to his will. He also surrendered to the will of Krishna by telling the Pandavas the secret to vanquishing him in battle. Finally, since he was able to choose the moment of his death, he chose to die while seeing and thinking of Krishna alone. Due to this devotion, surrender, willingness to suffer the consequences of his actions in this very life (even if they were terrible) and thoughts of Krishna, he attained Moksha.

Moksha is the ulimate goal of human existance, and one must be willing to pay the price of taking responsibility and owning up to the consequences of one's actions in order to attain Moksha.