Mumukshutva is the desire to be liberated, the desire to be free. This concept of mumukshutva is not only spiritual, it is also social, physical, emotional and mental; it is the need to be free from the existing negative conditioning and restricted knowledge. No journey begins without the undercurrent of mumukshutva, the desire to change. If there was no mumukshutva, yoga would have no meaning. There would be no interest or attraction to spiritual subjects or even to religion or philosophy, let alone changing one's lifestyle or belief.
When mumukshutva, the desire to change, to become better, to transcend one's limitations, mature in life and evolve spiritually, comes from within, that is the motivation for sadhana. One is attracted to the practices of asana because of mumukshutva; one is attracted to meditation because of mumukshutva; one is desirous to change the quality and the condition of life only because of mumukshutva. Mumukshutva is the undercurrent, the force of transformation, the force of change without which yoga is incomplete, without which any internal discipline is incomplete.
11 June 2006, Ganga Darshan, Munger