Appendix 2: Description of what a jivanmukta is

A Jivanmukta is a person who is liberated in this life. This is the worthwhile state to go after, and the Upanishads great importance to becoming a jivanmukta. The following quotes describe a jivanmukta:

From the Varaha Upanishad, chapter 4, verses 21-30:

21He is said to be a Jivanmukta in whom, though participating in the material concerns of the world, the universe is not seen to exist like the invisible Akasha.
22He is said to be a Jivanmukta, the light of whose mind never sets or rises in misery or happiness and who does not seek to change what happens to him.
23He is said to be a Jivanmukta who though in his Sushupti is awake and to whom the waking state is unknown and whose wisdom is free from the affinities of objects.
24He is said to be a Jivanmukta whose heart is pure like Akasha, though acting in consonance to love, hatred, fear and others.
25He is said to be a Jivanmukta who has not the conception of his being the actor and whose intellect is not attached to material objects, whether he performs actions or not.
26He is said to be a Jivanmukta, of whom people are not afraid, who is not afraid of people and who has given up joy, anger and fear.
27He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who though participating in all the illusory objects, is cool amidst them and is a full Atman, as if they belonged to others.
28O Muni, he is said to be a Jivanmukta, who having eradicated all the desires of his Chitta, is content with me who am the Atman of all.
29He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who rests with an unshaken mind in that all pure abode which is Chinmatra and free from all the modifications of Chitta.
30He is said to be a Jivanmukta in whose Chitta do not dawn the distinctions of the universe, I, he, you and others that are visible and unreal.

 

From the Maha Upanishad II, 42-62:

He is said to be ‘Liberated while living’ (Jivanmukta) who has lost taste for enjoyment by means of penance etc., and no other cause.
Who does not rejoice, nor languish, being detached when joy and grief befall him according to time or destiny;
Who is untouched in the mind, by exaltation, anger, fear, lust and meanness;
Who gives up as if playfully, the egotist tendency and remains giving up brooding;
Who is free from desire and non-desire as he is introvert and behaves as in deep sleep;
Who is seated delighting in the spirit, replete, pure in mind having got excellent repose and desires nothing in the material world and lives without unction;
Who is unsmeared in the region of the heart with objects of knowledge and whose consciousness is not inert;
Who performs without expectation, likes and dislikes, actions and acts of joy and grief, virtue and vice, success and failure;
Who is silent, egoless, prideless, avoiding jealousy and does actions without agitation;
Who exists like a detached onlooker and functions without attachment and desire everywhere;
Who has given up internally all of dharma and adharma, thought and desire;
Who has given up fully the worldly view;
Who eats with equal detachment what is bitter, sour, salty, astringent, seasoned and unseasoned;
Who has given up dharma and adharma, joy and grief, death and birth;
Who, free from tension and joy, does not get depressed or elated, with a pure intellect;
Who has given up all desires, all doubts, all rigid thoughts;
Who is equal towards birth, existence and death, rise and fall.
Who does not dislike or hanker after anything and enjoys incidental pleasure.
Whose thought of worldly life has quietened down, who has aspects and yet is aspect-less, having mind – yet mindless.
Who is active towards all objects, yet is desireless as if they are alien objects, is full in spirit.

 

From the Maha Upanishad, part VI:

45He is called the Jivanmukta who lives after giving up all conceivable objects; for he has recreatively given up all latent egoistic impressions. 46Having given up all baseless mental constructions and the latent impressions, he who has won tranquillity is the best among the Knowers of Brahman; he is the liberated. His renunciation may only be deduced. 47These two fearless ones, unconcerned about pleasures and pains that occur in the due course of time, have achieved the status as Brahman – the passive renouncer 48and the active Yogin, both of whom are self-disciplined and tranquil. O Lord of sages! For they neither strive for nor reject anything amidst the inner, mental modifications. 49He is called the Jivanmukta who lives as one in dreamless sleep, who is neither lifted up nor depressed by the emotions of joy, intolerance, fear, anger, lust and helplessness 50and who is free from all objective pre-occupations ‘the craving born of latent impressions, oriented towards external objects, is said to be bound. 51The same freed from latent impressions bound up with objects, as such, is said to be liberated. Know that the desire culminating in the prayerful thought, "let this be mine", 52to be a strong chain that spawns suffering, birth and fear.

 

From the Maha Upanishad, part VI:

64Who performs the actions that fall to his lot, ever viewing foe and friend alike, who is liberated from both likes and dislikes is neither sad nor hopeful. 65Who utters what pleases all; speaks pleasantly when asked; and who is conversant with the thoughts of all beings never suffers in this empirical life. 66Resorting to the primeval vision marked by the renunciation of all objects and Self-established, fearlessly roam the world, as a Jivanmukta. 67Inwardly shedding all cravings, free from attachment, rid of all latent impressions, but externally conforming to established patterns of conduct, fearlessly roam the world. 68Externally simulating enthusiastic activity, but, at heart, free from it all, apparently an agent but really a non-agent, roam the world with a purified understanding. 69Renouncing egoism, with an apparent reason, shining like the sky, untarnished, roam the world with a purified understanding. 70Elevated, clean of conduct, conforming to established norms of conduct, free from all inner clinging, leading, as it were, an empirical life. 71Resorting to the inner Spirit of renunciation, apparently he acts to achieve some aim. Only small men discriminate saying: One is a relative; the other is a stranger. 72For those who live magnanimously the entire world constitutes but a family. Resort to the status free from all considerations of empirical life, beyond old age and death, 73who are all mental constructions are extinguished and where no attachments finds lodgement. This is the status of Brahman, absolutely pure, beyond all cravings and sufferings. 74Equipped thus and roaming the earth, one is not vanquished by crisis.

 

From the Annapurna Upanishad, chapter II:

26What is bondage and what is liberation in respect of the Self that transcends all things or that pervades all forms? Think freely. 27Loving the Spirit, lifted above all hopes, full, holy in mind, having won the incomparable state of repose, he seeks nothing here. 28He is called the Jivanmukta who lives, unattached, in the pure Being that sustains all, the indubitable Spirit that is the Self. 29He does not crave for what is yet to be; he does not bank on the present; he remembers not the past; yet he does all work. 30Ever unattached to those who cling to him; devoted to the devotees; he is harsh, as it were, to the harsh. 31A child amidst children; adult amidst adults; bold amidst the bold; a youth amidst the youthful; lamenting amidst those who lament; 32Steadfast, blissful, polished, of holy speech, wise, simple and sweet; never given to self-pity; 33Through discipline, when the throb of vital breaths ceases, the mind is wholly dissolved; the impersonal bliss (Nirvana) remains;

 

From the Tejo-Bindu Upanishad Chapter IV:

The Kumara asked the great Lord: "Please explain to me the nature of Jivanmukti (embodied liberation) and Videhamukti (disembodied liberation)." To which the great Shiva replied:

1I am Chidatma. I am Param-Atma. I am the Nirguna (without qualities), greater than the great. One who will simply stay in Atman is called a Jivanmukta. 2He who realizes: ‘I am beyond the three bodies, I am the pure consciousness and I am Brahman’, is said to be a Jivanmukta. 3He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realizes: ‘I am of the nature of the blissful and of the supreme bliss, and I have neither body nor any other thing except the certitude ‘I am Brahman’ only. 4He is said to be a Jivanmukta who has not at all got the ‘I’ in myself, but who stays in Chinmatra (absolute consciousness) alone, whose interior is consciousness alone, who is only of the nature of Chinmatra, 5whose Atman is of the nature of the all-full, who has Atman left over in all, who is devoted to bliss, who is undifferentiated, who is all-full of the nature of consciousness, whose Atman is of the nature of pure consciousness, 6who has given up all affinities for objects, who has unconditioned bliss, whose Atman is tranquil, who has got no other thought than Itself and who is devoid of the thought of the existence of anything. 7He is said to be a Jivanmukta who realizes: ‘I have no Chitta, no Buddhi, no Ahamkara, 8no sense, no body at any time, no Pranas, no Maya, no passion and no anger, I am the great, 9I have nothing of these objects or of the world and I have no sin, no characteristics, no eye, 10no Manas, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no hand, no waking, no dreaming, 11or causal state in the least or the fourth state.’

12-29He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realizes: ‘All this is not mine, I have no time, no space, no object, no thought, no bathing, no Sandhyas (junction-period ceremonies), no deity, no place, no sacred places, no worship, no spiritual wisdom, no seat, no relative, no birth, no speech, no wealth, no virtue, no vice, no duty, no auspiciousness, no Jiva, not even the three worlds, no liberation, no duality, no Vedas, no mandatory rules, no proximity, no distance, no knowledge, no secrecy, no Guru, no disciple, no diminution, no excess, no Brahma, no Vishnu, no Rudra, no moon, no earth, no water, no wind, no sky, no fire, no clan, no goal, no mundane existence, no meditator, no object of meditation, no mind, no cold, no heat, no thirst, no hunger, no friend, no foe, no illusion, no victory, no past, present, or future, no quarters, nothing to be said or heard in the least, nothing to be gone to, nothing to be attained, nothing to be contemplated, enjoyed or remembered, no enjoyment, no desire, no Yoga, no absorption, no garrulity, no quietude, no bondage, no love, no joy, no instant joy, no hugeness, no smallness, neither length nor shortness, neither increase nor decrease, neither Adhyaropa (illusory attribution) nor Apavada (withdrawal of that conception), no oneness, no manyness, no blindness, no dullness, no skill, no flesh, no blood, no lymph, no skin, no marrow, no bone, no skin, none of the seven Dhatu-s, no whiteness, no redness, no blueness, no heat, no gain, neither importance nor non-importance, no delusion, no perseverance, no mystery, no race, nothing to be abandoned or received, nothing to be laughed at, no policy, no religious vow, no fault, no bewailments, no happiness, neither knower nor knowledge nor the knowable, no Self, nothing belonging to you or to me, neither you nor I, and neither old age nor youth nor manhood; but I am certainly Brahman. ‘I am certainly Brahman. I am Consciousness, I am Consciousness’.

30He is said to be a Jivanmukta who cognizes: ‘I am Brahman alone, I am Consciousness alone, I am the supreme’. No doubt need be entertained about this; ‘I am Hamsa itself, I remain of my own will, 31I can see myself through myself, I reign happy in the kingdom of Atman and enjoy in myself the bliss of my own Atman’. 32He is a Jivanmukta who is himself, the foremost and the one undaunted person who is himself the lord and rests in his own Self.