Jivanmukti Escapes Physical Death

​

 

 

 

 

A jivanmukti is one who becomes Brahman in this very life without the dependency of having to give up the physical body through death.  This means liberation can be produced even while having a physical form. For this to happen, attention or your awareness itself must be held at its source instead of projecting outwards and succumbing to delusion through the false body and mind. When one succumbs to delusion, their attention is held on to reality with form (i.e. saguna).  If attention is held inward (away from all that is non-self), it abides in its source where duality isn't perceived as something outside of you. In other words, the body becomes formless while still retaining an appearance of a form! 

 

One who is not a knower of Brahman has their attention pointed outwards and sees a reality that is dual (separate tangible forms). In other words, they not only perceive objects outside of them, but also perceives thoughts and can discriminate between objects giving rise to linearity. When one is immersed in duality, they become confined to the mechanical process of nature (prakriti), which is governed by autonomous laws that ultimately has no doer behind its governance. 

 

The illusory ego is leveraged and now awareness claims ownership of a false identity.  It is now under the impression that it is the committer or the doer of its actions.  The mechanical process of nature is the force that carries the false ego on a journey of experiencing information or data that makes up a specific reality that is perceives.  The more abstract the information is, the more subtle the world is or the more dream-like it is with less sense of separation (ego).  The more concrete the information is, the more physical it appears to be and the more one assumes the wrong identity as separation is perceived to a greater degree.  Physicality enhances the illusion and prevents one from not only seeing the subtlety of information behind the physical appearance, but also the source that makes up that very appearance.  If one turns their attention inward while being alive through everyday action, they can hold on to the non-dual reality while the appearance of duality persists.  Abiding in the presence of non-duality means there are no longer any thoughts perceived because attention is frozen as the pure "I".  When attention abides in its source while the appearance of duality continues, it is known as jnani samadhi (i.e. abiding in turiya).  In this case, samadhi is not produced from a specific action like sitting down and meditating while trying to block out thoughts and objects, but rather it is produced simply by turning attention inward even while being awake in the presence of objects.  

 

When attention is turned inward, objects are no longer given specific values and there is no discrimination that allows you to determine what is different from something else.  Therefore, there is no judgement or attachment that allows you to see separation (i.e. the perception of something outside of oneself).  Everything comes to a complete stillness as you become one with this intensified presence.  Because the appearance now resides inside you, reality is subtlety known for what it truly is.  There is only the complete knowledge of what really exists and what only exists.  Keep in mind, this is not an understanding of what reality is.  There is no progression of linear thoughts that allows you to comprehend something, but rather the complete knowing of truth all-at-once (frozen eternally) in unbroken stillness. Effort at attending to this source is required to produce liberation and can only persist with a pure mind devoid of tamas and rajas which conceals and further projects false knowledge (i.e. body-mind).  If you can abide in this truth for long periods of time, you can come to a point where attention becomes locked in on its source without effort or any type of practice to keep it there.  If this happens, your attention no longer projects outward and therefore no longer succumbs to the delusion or confinement to the mechanical process of transmigration.  

 

For the normal person, when the physical body dies, attention is turned from the physical body to the subtle body that experiences a different realm (a realm of subtlety).  Since the subtle body holds desires/emotions/memory etc., attention is held there and now perceives another life to exhaust those very desires that brings it there. This is because desires only exist to be exhausted. Every desire you have is a chance to act on it and exhaust it.  Either you burn the desire or you create more from it.  The subtle body therefore, is carried to the appropriate environment that is conducive enough to burn desires.  However, if attention is no longer placed in the subtle body and is locked in at its source while the body dies, there is no longer confinement to duality at all.  One escapes the transmigration process and is liberated at once, since there is no longer attention entangled with the subtle body which is the vehicle used in the inner worlds. When one abides in turiya and witnesses the appearance of duality in a non-separate experience, it is fully known that this needs to be held to escape the transmigration process because you will innately know that you are not only separate from all autonomous laws that keeps the jiva in confinement but you are that which reveals all laws that operates the dream world.

 

It is important to note that reality is non-dual, so the source of all is not apart from you but IS the REAL YOU.  This means there is no getting from one place to another - that is an illusion.  There is only a non-dual reality.  If there is a non-dual reality, this means that truth can be known right here/right now without having to travel anywhere to find it.  A non-dual reality is all there is; there only appears to be a dual reality when non-dual awareness is pointed outwards thus finds itself in an illusion confined to a pre-existing autonomous process. Though it must be noted that this process is not a dual one but actually a non-dual one.  It only appears to be dual. In other words, what it looks like is not what it actually is.  It is just an appearance of that same non-dual truth and ignorance of the non-dual truth allows the delusion to persist simply because you are attached to something that isn't truly there.  The appearance is just an appearance and not something tangible and separate from the truth.  The power of non-dual reality allows it to be perceived as something else even though what appears to be something else is actually itself.  If one does not keep attention grounded in its own source, attention will be projected outwards and hence attention will remain attached to an appearance that spontaneously arises. The appearance runs on its own with pre-existing laws that can never be broken.  It is an eternal blueprint of how reality is governed. You can either die with the physical body and flow through this process wherever the process is destined to take you, or you can pull your attention away from it and reverse it back to its source where it came from. This allows you to break free from Maya.  Being free from the appearance means being free from suffering because there is no longer the perception of an appearance that can bring the illusion of suffering forth.

​

The Vedas mention two ways of becoming liberated.  The first is the jivanmukti method which is explained above (turning attention away from objects while in the presence of them).  The other is flowing through the mechanical process of transmigration until it takes you to the most subtle of worlds where information becomes so abstract that there is barely anything to hold on to.  This means, by going this route, the body must die and travel through the inner worlds until the ego eventually vanishes because it becomes so subtle through inner deaths that it fully disappears.  This is the kramamukti method and can only be done *without form*.  It is liberation in steps (krama) , meaning you must travel through the inner worlds in steps until you become dissolved in the absolute. However, producing liberation via this method is gradual and allows you to gradually remove layers of your false being, until there are no more layers left.

 

How is this different from a Jivanmuka who is liberated at once while having the physical body? Well, the Jivanmukta does not have a body as he has already transcended the body or removed identification from it.  However, the jivanmukti (while having form) can still perceive the appearance of the false world while they are resting as brahman. They can subtlety compare the world while being absorbed in its source at the same time.  This is why this inner space is referred to as atma-jnanam (knowledge of the self) because the comparison allows one to acknowledge their true nature.  

​

One may ask if there is one method that is more difficult than the other.  The fundamental answer is that everyone will be destined to use a method to produce liberation.  However, in terms of difficulty, the more qualified you are, the more you are able to produce liberation via jivanmukti method.  This is because the jivanmuka does not need to leave anywhere but can attain the fundamental reality directly without having to physically die.  The only effort done at first is turning attention away from objects and thoughts, and then finally turning attention away from the doer who was the instrument that performed the inquiry.

 

The benefit of jivanmukti is that there can be a subtle comparison between Brahman and the appearance itself until the body dies.  This is something that cannot happen with the kramamukti because that is dependent upon the death of the body where the physical world is no longer perceived.  No world is perceived other than the bliss and the subtlety of itself before all is vanished when merged in the supreme.  Which way will you choose to go? Do you prefer to have a comparison between the dualistic physical world and the true self? Or would you prefer to gradually become Brahman without the subtle perception of a grosser appearance?

 

The comparison itself is what is the ultimate experience because the jivanmukti truly knows not only the knowledge of Brahman but the subtle understanding that life was a game for Brahman's own enjoyment. Irrespective of both methods, the final outcome of both is to abide in the non-dual truth without the witnessing of anything.  All appearances will gradually fade and one will rest permanently in non-dual truth without the possibility of ever attending again to what appears to be anything other than its own self.  ​​​