Upadesa Saram - Post 34

Verse 29

(Continued…)

बन्धमुक्त्यतीतं परं सुखम् |

विन्दतीह जीवस्तु दैविकः || २९ ||

bandhamuktyatītaṁ paraṁ sukham |

vindatīha jīvastu daivikaḥ || 29 ||

Beyond bondage and liberation, the Supreme happiness,

He finds here that the jiva is certainly the Divine.

Beyond bondage and liberation

Maharshi adds in this shloka that the Self is beyond bondage and liberation because the Self is ever-realized. There is no liberation for the Self. 

Both bondage and liberation belong to the 'Aham Vritti' or the ‘I-thought’. Bondage and liberation are only at the level of the mind. They are from the standpoint of the ordinary mind. The impulse to strive for happiness in the ordinary man is also mind-driven.

That is not the impulse that drives the sage. The sage has seen that the mind itself is an illusion, and has raised himself beyond it to the Divine Consciousness. His joy is therefore beyond the ideas of bondage and liberation. 

Divine state 

An Acharya of Chinmaya Mission explains the state of such a sage / saintly person / Jivanmukhta as ‘Divinity on two legs’, thus:

A person who has experienced the pure Self becomes a Divine person with divine qualities. Divinity pulsates through such a person, flows right through him without any obstruction. All noble virtues become part and parcel of him. 

There is not a trace of hatred for others in him, as there is no ‘other’ for him! He has a purity that transcends worldliness. His actions are spontaneous, not artificial. 

The personality of the sage has a special beauty that is not seen in ordinary humans. When we do not find the usual human weaknesses in a person, we call him Divine. 

The entire Cosmos takes care of him. Everything is taken care of for him. His needs are met in a mysterious manner. His work is taken care of by the Lord Himself. One observes a remarkable co-operation from cosmic forces which seem to lie at his disposal, eagerly waiting to be at his service. It is as though the whole universe is working in his favor.

To understand what divinity is, the only way is to see it in action in such a saintly person. He stands as ‘Divinity on two legs’.

The state of such a Jivanmukhta, liberated while alive, has been explained vividly in many treatises. Swami Dattatreya has dedicated a Gita itself, all about such a sage, titled “Jivanmukhta Gita”. Swami Sivananda has written beautiful commentary on the verses of Jivanmukhta Gita.

Author of this blog used to reach to an unimaginable ecstatic state while reading and absorbing this commentary by the Supreme Master Swami Sivananda. Sankara describes about such realized sage in Viveka Chudamani. And almost in all Vedanta works written by Sage Vidyaranya, Swami Sivananda etc., the state of realized Seer has been described in the best possible way, with available finite words.

Love.