Jivanmukta
Jīvanmukta (IAST)Translation: "Liberated While Living"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: जीवन्मुक्त
Transliteration: Jīvanmukta
Translation: "liberated while living"
Definition:
- A doctrine admitted by Sāṅkhya, Advaita Vedānta, Kashmir Śaivism, and Śaiva Siddhānta, though with variations according to each system. The doctrine posits that an individual may be liberated even while living in a physical body.
- According to Sāṅkhya, it occurs the moment there is an essential, experiential discrimination between the individual soul (Puruṣa) and primordial Nature (Prakṛti). The physical body continues due to past actions (Karma), which had brought it about in the first place. When this action (Karma) subsides, through experience thereof, the physical body falls and one is then released without the body (Videha-Mukti).
- According to Advaita Vedānta, liberation occurs with the destruction of ignorance (Avidyā). The continuance of the physical body is in no way incompatible to liberation. Before liberation, one realizes that the physical body is only an illusory appearance. If the body were real, liberation could occur only after its destruction. However, liberation is a change of perspective. Since the physical body is not real, its continued appearance or disappearance is of no consequence. Thus, the Jīvanmukta is one who lives in the world, but is not of it. Whether such an individual has a body or not is of no difference.
- According to Śaiva Siddhanta, it is an individual soul which is freed from Āṇava-, Māyā-, and Karma-Malas and their operations. The individual enjoys bliss even while living in an embodied state.
The Upanishads: Volume I (Swami Nikhilananda)
"How does a Jīvanmukta, a liberated soul, act? How does he move? How does he live? Ordinary minds cannot understand his actions, life, or movements, any more than a dreaming man can see the world of the awakened. The rishis of the Upanishads declare that a Jīvanmukta is free from desires (Akāmayamāna). "The ancient sages, it is said, did not desire children, thinking: What shall we achieve through children—we who have attained this Self, this world? They renounced, it is said, their desire for sons, for wealth, and for the worlds, and lived a mendicant life."
A Jīvanmukta is free from the illusion of individuality and therefore from the possibility of pain. "He who knows Ātman overcomes grief." "When in the body [thinking this body is I, and I am the body], the Self is held by pleasure and pain; but when He is free from the body [when He knows Himself to be different from the body], neither pleasure nor pain touches Him."
A Jīvanmukta is free from the binding effects of past action. "All works cease to bear fruit." It is consciousness of individuality that impels a man to selfish action, whose good or bad result he must reap at a future date. But the liberated man has realized his individuality as a part of the cosmic illusion and, with the attainment of Knowledge, freed himself from its spell. The awakened person does not reap the fruit of his dream actions.
A liberated man is not given to inactivity, which is characteristic of Tamas. He sees action in non-action and non-action in action. Actions do not cling to him. Even while performing actions through his body and senses, he knows his inner Self to be actionless and detached. He knows that the Self is not the doer, but the Witness; It is not the actor, but the Spectator. He can never perform an evil action. All his evil instincts were destroyed when he practiced spiritual discipline. Only good comes out of him—and that, too, without any effort. "This is the eternal glory of a knower of Brahman: it never increases or decreases by work. [Therefore] one should know the nature of that alone. Knowing it, one is not touched by evil action. Therefore, he who knows it as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, enduring, and concentrated, and sees the Self in his own body; he sees all as the Self. Evil does not overtake him, but he transcends all evil. Evil does not trouble him, [but] he consumes all evil. He becomes sinless, taintless, free from doubts, and a knower of Brahman.
A liberated soul has attained the blessed state of being free from doubt. "All doubts are resolved." His knowledge of Ātman is not based upon intellect but is the result of direct experience. And the illusion, once destroyed, does not come back.
A Jīvanmukta is no longer concerned about bondage or Liberation; for these really do not belong to Ātman, the Self ever free. Bondage and Liberation are characteristics of the mind. On account of Māyā, an ignorant person thinks of himself as bound and then strives for Liberation; but Ātman is always free. In the inspiring words of Gauḍāpada: "There is neither death nor birth, neither a struggling nor a bound soul, neither a seeker after Liberation nor a liberated one—this, indeed, is the ultimate truth."
A Jīvanmukta is free from the illusion of individuality and therefore from the possibility of pain. "He who knows Ātman overcomes grief." "When in the body [thinking this body is I, and I am the body], the Self is held by pleasure and pain; but when He is free from the body [when He knows Himself to be different from the body], neither pleasure nor pain touches Him."
A Jīvanmukta is free from the binding effects of past action. "All works cease to bear fruit." It is consciousness of individuality that impels a man to selfish action, whose good or bad result he must reap at a future date. But the liberated man has realized his individuality as a part of the cosmic illusion and, with the attainment of Knowledge, freed himself from its spell. The awakened person does not reap the fruit of his dream actions.
A liberated man is not given to inactivity, which is characteristic of Tamas. He sees action in non-action and non-action in action. Actions do not cling to him. Even while performing actions through his body and senses, he knows his inner Self to be actionless and detached. He knows that the Self is not the doer, but the Witness; It is not the actor, but the Spectator. He can never perform an evil action. All his evil instincts were destroyed when he practiced spiritual discipline. Only good comes out of him—and that, too, without any effort. "This is the eternal glory of a knower of Brahman: it never increases or decreases by work. [Therefore] one should know the nature of that alone. Knowing it, one is not touched by evil action. Therefore, he who knows it as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, enduring, and concentrated, and sees the Self in his own body; he sees all as the Self. Evil does not overtake him, but he transcends all evil. Evil does not trouble him, [but] he consumes all evil. He becomes sinless, taintless, free from doubts, and a knower of Brahman.
A liberated soul has attained the blessed state of being free from doubt. "All doubts are resolved." His knowledge of Ātman is not based upon intellect but is the result of direct experience. And the illusion, once destroyed, does not come back.
A Jīvanmukta is no longer concerned about bondage or Liberation; for these really do not belong to Ātman, the Self ever free. Bondage and Liberation are characteristics of the mind. On account of Māyā, an ignorant person thinks of himself as bound and then strives for Liberation; but Ātman is always free. In the inspiring words of Gauḍāpada: "There is neither death nor birth, neither a struggling nor a bound soul, neither a seeker after Liberation nor a liberated one—this, indeed, is the ultimate truth."
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Nikhilananda, Swami (1949). The Upanishads: Volume I—Katha, Iśa, Kena, and Mundaka. New York, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. p. 105-106.
