The ideal aimed at in Vedanta is to attain to a state that is beyond all birth and death, from which there is no falling off, a state of freedom. Freedom or liberation can come only by dissociating ourselves from our body and mind, in other words, from our false personalities. Absolute detachment from material objects is real freedom. Dependence on anything other than one's true Self is bondage and misery. The perfected soul depends on his Self alone, not on others, and enjoys the bliss of the Self. He is called an atmarama - One who revels in his Self. He transcends all kinds of gross and subtle enjoyments of the mind and the senses. To an illumined soul even heavenly happiness is a misery, because he has enjoyed a much higher state of happiness and freedom. Granting that heavenly pleasures are better than earthly pleasures, still they are not permanent and do not enable one to transcend one's limitations. That is why all serious-minded spiritual aspirants are advised to consider any desire for heaven an obstacle to spiritual progress. Instead of following the path of rituals and ceremonials, which leads to perishable results, one should cultivate more and more dispassion, knowledge and devotion.

Death is staring at you in the face and you are thinking of enjoyment! Such is the power of Maya that we go on spending our precious time in all sorts of ridiculous things and creating newer forms of bondage forgetting the supreme ideal of liberation. Sri Ramakrishna's parable of the fisherman's net and the fish is clear in its meaning. A way out of the net open, yet only a few fish escape through it. The rest bury them selves deep in the mud thinking they are cosy and safe there. So also it is with us. This world which we think is the most secure place disappears from our eyes when death overpowers us. We need not have any morbid fear of death. But we should not be foolish enough to overlook its reality. If life is real, death too is real.

Salvation in Hinduism means freedom or liberation of the soul from all sorrows. It is a state of unalloyed peace. To live in that state of total freedom and bliss or the intense struggle to attain that, is what we mean by the term "spiritual life". This is not a state which is only attained after death. It is attainable right here in this world. A man who has attained this lasting freedom is called a jīvanmukta.

Reference: Meditation and Spiritual Life by Swami Yatiswarananda (p.564,565)