Liberation While Living (Jīvanmukti)
Free here and now — the body lives on, but the bondage is already gone.
Jīvanmukti is 'liberation while living': the idea that one can be fully free here and now, before death, while the body continues. The liberated sage still walks, eats, and teaches, but is no longer caught in ignorance or craving — the momentum of past actions simply plays itself out. The notion is prized in Advaita and in Kashmir Shaivism; some theistic schools are more cautious about it.
How it traveled
- TantrasāraŚrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000explains
- VivekacūḍāmaṇiŚṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400explains
Key passages(18)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
'Thus does that serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light (the knowledge of Self). He (in that state) is the highest person (uttama p
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
'This has been told by a verse (Rik): "This eternal greatness of the Brahmana does not grow larger by work, nor does it grow smaller. Let man try to find (know) its trace, for having found (known) it,
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But he who has understanding, who is mindful and always pure, reaches indeed that place; from whence he is not born again.
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When thy intellect, tossed about by the conflict of opinions—has become immovable and firmly established in the Self, then thou shalt attain Self-realisation.
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If a man could not understand it before the falling asunder of his body, then he has to take body again in the worlds of creation.
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