Faith, devotion, meditation and desire for liberation - these are the means for release from the ties of the body which are imagined out of ignorance. Where one has to reach is decided by putting faith in the teacher, scripture and satsanga (company of the wise). Without a goal, mere argumentation is not useful. Those who split hairs will not attain the supreme Ishvara. Do not argue with a teacher or a monk, put faith in and contemplate upon their statements. Contemplation (manana) means positive reflection. Faith should take you to firm conviction. Prior to immediate realization, faith gives you direction, and after, it give you conviction.
Devotion (bhakti) means repeated thinking of the goal. Prior to realization, it will give dispassion to everything other than the goal, and after realization, it will make you completely detached and will give you the unique joy of living freedom (jeevan mukti).
Meditation (dhyaana) bestows the capability of the knowledge of the essence prior to realization. Knowledge of the essence does not erase the feeling of duality, it erases the illusion of duality. Seeing the sky as blue is one thing. Taking the blue-ness in the identity of the sky to be real is another. Vedanta knowledge does not erase the appearance of the world. It only erases the delusion that there is something other than brahman. But if you meditate after you gain the knowledge of the essence, then it can even remove the appearance of the world (prapancha).
"Mumukshaa" is the desire for liberation. Liberation from what? Not from each thought flow or transformation. The desire of freeing oneself from the entire mind is mumukshaa. One that has this desire he will not be content with something insignificant or something great that he needs to depend upon. He will only be satisfied with the infinite (bhooma). This is true liberation.
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