Swami Sivananda

The State of Jivanmukti

The Guru said: A Jivanmukta who has reached the Imperishable Turiya state can never be affected by the pairs of opposites. He always rests in his own Sat-Chit-Ananda Swaroopa. He roams about happily.

commentary

A Jivanmukta is a sage who is liberated from bondage even while living with a body. The perception of the material universe as such vanishes and he beholds the One Brahman appearing as the universe. 

The egoism of the Jivanmukta is like a burnt cloth which has got the appearance of a cloth but is actually reduced to the state of ashes. 

The individual consciousness of the Jivanmukta is powerful enough to maintain the existence of his physical body, but it is not capable of bringing to him another birth as an embodied being. 

His Sanchita-Karmas get fried by the fire of Brahma-Jnana or Knowledge of the Absolute Reality. He has no Agami Karmas to bring future births because he has no feelings of Kartritva and Bhoktritva. His actions are cosmic movements and not the instincts of the sense of egoism. The Prarabdha Karma which has given rise to Brahma-Jnana lasts as long as the momentum of past desires which constitute the present Prarabdha lasts. An illustration will make this fact very clear.

A hunter sees an animal moving in the forest and thinking that it is a tiger he shoots an arrow at it. After the arrow has left the bow-string he realises that the animal is not a tiger but a cow. But this subsequent knowledge will not save the cow from being affected by the arrow. The arrow will hit the object which lies within the sphere of its momentum.

The Jnani realises that the whole universe is Brahman only. But the desires which he had given rise to during the time when he thought that the objective world is real will not cease from demanding materialisation into effects as long as the momentum of their craving lasts. 

Hence these desires keep up the physical body of the Jivanmukta for some time even after his Self-realization. When the Prarabdha-Karma is exhausted the body drops off by itself and the sage becomes unified with the Infinite Brahman.

But, even while living with a body, the Jivanmukta identifies his consciousness with Brahman and is not affected by the pairs of opposites and the forces of nature. The whole universe is his body for he is in tune with all the forces of Nature due to his transcending all phenomenal relativities and resting in Brahman-Consciousness at all times.

(Verse by the Master Sivananda with commentary by the disciple Swami Krishnananda)