Question and answer 40

What marks out someone liberated while still alive from someone liberated at bodily death?

The body is not I. I am nothing but Brahman, shining as the Self. Someone may hold the unshakeable conviction that, in this perfectly full being that I am, the whole world, the body included, is nothing more than an appearance, the way the sky merely looks blue, and so be liberated while still alive, a jīvanmukta. Even so, as long as the mind has not dissolved, some trace of sorrow can still turn up in the things that prārabdha, the momentum of past karma, brings before you. And as long as the mind's restlessness hasn't gone, you won't experience bliss either. Only a mind grown subtle and still, through long meditation, can hold the experience of the Self. In this way, whoever has the experience of their own real nature, together with a mind grown that subtle, is called jīvanmukta. This very state is called nirguṇa-Brahman — the attributeless — and also turīya, the fourth state. When even that subtle mind dissolves, and, with no separate experience of one's own nature left standing apart, one is simply submerged in an ocean of bliss, nothing at all appearing, being nothing but that one substance — that is videhamukta, liberated at the body's end. This state is called nirguṇātīta-Brahman — beyond even the attributeless — and turyātīta, beyond the fourth. This is the final word. Whatever finer distinctions people draw — jīvanmukta and videhamukta split four ways, as brahmavid, varan, varīyān, and variṣṭha, by degrees of relative sorrow and joy — all of that is only about how it looks from outside. In the liberation that is knowledge itself, there is, in truth, no difference at all.

What are the characteristics of the liberated-while-living (jīvanmukta) and the liberated-bodilessly (videhamukta)?

The body is not I. I am nothing but Brahman, shining as the nature of the Self. Even though the one who holds the firm conviction that, in me — perfectly full being itself — every world, beginning with the body, is a mere appearance, like the blueness of the sky, is a jīvanmukta, as long as the mind has not [fully] dissolved, some measure of sorrow can still appear among the objects seen, arising by force of prārabdha [the momentum of past karma now bearing fruit]. As long as the mind's restlessness has not departed, there will be no experience of bliss. It is only for a mind grown subtle and motionless, through long meditation, that the experience of the Self becomes possible. In this way, whoever has, together with such a subtle mind, the experience of his own real nature, is called a jīvanmukta. This very state of jīvanmukti is called nirguṇa-Brahman, and also turīya. When this subtle mind, too, has dissolved, and, with no separate experience of one's own real nature remaining, one is submerged in an ocean of bliss, with nothing at all appearing, remaining entirely of that one substance — such a person is called a videhamukta. This state of videhamukti is called nirguṇātīta-Brahman, and also turyātīta. This is the final word. The distinctions of jīvanmukta and videhamukta, spoken of in four kinds by reason of differing degrees of sorrow and joy — brahmavid, varan, varīyān, variṣṭha — concern only the differing viewpoint of the observer; in the liberation that is knowledge itself, there is, in truth, no such distinction at all.