Jīvanmukti

Jīvanmukti · jīvan-mukti, “freedom while living”

Grammar: feminine noun; a compound of jīvan (living, from the root jīv, to live) and mukti (freedom, from muc, to release): “freedom while living”. The one so freed is a jīvanmukta (masculine) or jīvanmuktā (feminine).

Meaning: moksha attained while still in the body: the state in which ajñāna is destroyed, the sense of being the doer and the enjoyer falls away, and nothing appears as other than the ātmā. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls it kevala-bhāva, supreme peace, unsurpassed bliss and the highest good.

In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches what jīvanmukti is, how it is gained, and who gained it.

What it is. Bhagavān Kapila teaches Devahūti that as one sees the sun with the eye whose presiding devatā is the sun, the sādhaka with a pure antaḥkaraṇa sees Parameśvara present as the ātmā, merges in him and becomes a jīvanmukta. By Kapila‘s grace his discerning bhakta gains tattva-jñāna and, in this very birth, jīvanmukti, the unsurpassed bliss known as kevala (advaya) bhāva, whose nature is Brahman not different from the inner self (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 27). Bhagavān Vishṇu tells Pṛthu that the pure sādhaka gives up identification with pleasure, pain and delusion and sees Parabrahman in all; to him comes jīvanmukti, whose form is supreme peace, the brahmī-bhāva. The ātmā, the witness of the body, the senses and the mind, never changes, and one who knows it attains jīvanmukti, the supreme good (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 20). Sanatkumāra tells Pṛthu to keep jīvanmukti as his goal while he lives by the dharmas of the paramahaṃsas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22).

Brahmā tells Priyavrata that the jīvanmukta keeps the body while his prārabdha lasts, without “I and mine”, as one awake recalls a dream; he begins no new karma for a body and has no vāsanās for it (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 1). Ṛshabhadeva teaches his sons that when the heart’s knot of vāsanās loosens, a man leaves his delusion about the body, removes ajñāna, becomes a jīvanmukta and attains Parabrahman as his own Self (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5). Dattātreya tells Yadu that as a fire without fuel becomes still, the mind in which sense-objects no longer appear becomes established in the ātmā, and this itself is jīvanmukti; only two are free of the worry of honour and dishonour and immersed in bliss, the infant and the jñānī established in the ātmā beyond the guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 9). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the householder who lives at home like a guest, without ahaṅkāra and mamakāra and unattached to the house, is a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 17), and that the jīvanmukta does not wander after sense-objects nor remember them in his mind (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 25). The mahātmās who reach jīvanmukti through śāstra-jñāna and their own experience of the ātmā know his all-surpassing form (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 19).

How it is gained. Nārada Maharshi tells Vyāsa Maharshi that even spotless jñāna, steadfastness in Brahman, the means to jīvanmukti, does not shine without bhakti for Acyuta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 5). The devas tell Śrī Hari that hearing his līlās with śraddhā purifies the heart, and meditating on his foot gives jñāna and vairāgya and makes sādhakas jīvanmuktas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 5). Bhagavān Śiva, in the Rudra Gīta, teaches the Pracetās that ātma-jñāna in the form of jīvanmukti is the highest good: with its boat one crosses the ocean of sorrow, and there is no other way across saṃsāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 24). Nārada tells Prācīnabarhisha that those who take refuge at Śrī Hari’s feet gain jīvanmukti in this very birth; and Maitreya says that this teaching destroys the deha-abhimāna born of identity with the buddhi, gives jīvanmukti, and removes doubts about the other world (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29). Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that living by svadharma one should slowly give up even the karma born of one’s nature, go beyond the guṇas and become a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 11). Nimi asks the yogīśvaras for karma-yoga, by which one gains in this very birth the highest ātma-nishṭhā, jīvanmukti; and Kavi tells him that one who serves Śrī Hari’s foot with every movement of the mind gains bhakti, virakti, the shining of Bhagavān Śrī Hari within, and directly the supreme peace, jīvanmukti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 2–3). At the close of his teaching Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that one who knows the ātma-jñāna he has taught is rid of doubts and attains jīvanmukti; the one who hears their dialogue daily with śraddhā is not bound by karma; and one who gives up the sense of doership and offers himself to him attains amṛtatva, jīvanmukti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 29). Speech that sings the glory of Uttamaśloka is ever new, a festival for the mind, and dries up the ocean of grief: the person becomes a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 12).

Even the jīvanmuktas, free of vāsanās and of thirst for enjoyment, sing the guṇas of Śrī Hari (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 1).

Those who became jīvanmuktas.

  • Bhīshma Pitāmaha, who merged in the nirguṇa Parabrahman in the presence of Śrī Kṛshṇa, died a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 9).
  • Arjuna, remembering Śrī Kṛshṇa’s teaching, attained brahma-jñāna; avidyā was destroyed and he became guṇātīta, glossed as a jīvanmukta. Kuntī, hearing of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s withdrawal, merged her mind by single-pointed bhakti in Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa and became a jīvanmuktā, leaving the body (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15).
  • Uddhava, immersed in the flood of love as he remembered Śrī Kṛshṇa, seemed to Vidura kṛtārtha, glossed as a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 2).
  • Kardama, his buddhi fixed in bhakti on Bhagavān Vāsudeva, was freed from saṃsāra and became a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 24).
  • Utkala, the elder son of Dhruva, saw nothing as other than the ātmā in his state of jīvanmukti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 13).
  • Pṛthu, by Sanatkumāra’s teaching, stood steady in his own nature and knew himself a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22).
  • Nābhi, the father of Ṛshabhadeva, became a jīvanmukta in time (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 4).
  • Saṅkarshaṇa told Citraketu that by keeping his upadeśa in mind he would quickly gain ātma-jñāna and become a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 16).
  • Dadhīci taught the Aśvinī Kumāras the knowledge of the partless Parabrahman famous as Aśvaśira, and they became jīvanmuktas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 9).
  • Śāntaraya had ātma-jñāna and was a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 17).
  • At Kurukshetra Śrī Kṛshṇa taught the gopīs the truth of the ātmā; because they remembered him without ceasing, their sense of limitation was destroyed and they attained him as the ātmā, becoming jīvanmuktas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 82).
  • The nine sons of Ṛshabha, the yogīśvaras, were jīvanmuktas who moved freely through the worlds (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 2).
  • Yadu, hearing the avadhūta Dattātreya, gave up all attachment, saw Īśvara in everything and became a jīvanmukta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 9).
  • Uddhava went to Badarikāśrama, performed tapas, and as Śrī Kṛshṇa had taught, attained Śrī Hari as his own ātmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 29).

In the Brahma Purāṇa: Vyāsa, teaching the munis how the senses are to be controlled, says that the seeker of moksha should use the senses and the mind only for the realisation of the ātma-tattva. As soon as darkness goes, the creatures of the world see things; so, as soon as ajñāna goes, the ātmā is seen. As a water-bird moving in water is not touched by the water or its dirt, so the faults of sense objects do not touch the jīvanmukta yogī, though he moves among them. Those who delight in the experience of the ātmā destroy their sañcita karma, their stored karma, and exhaust their prārabdha by living it out; having become all beings, though moving among objects through the bond of the three guṇas, the ātmā shines with its own light (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 237).

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa. The jīvanmukta is one who is free while living, and in the Purāṇa he is named most often among the bhaktas of Śrī Kṛshṇa and the Vaishṇavas.

The bhakta. The learned one who serves Śrī Kṛshṇa asks no vara and is jīvanmukta; he holds sālokya, sārūpya, sāmīpya and sāyujya to be trivial, wealth like a clod of earth, and Indra-hood, Manu-hood and long life like a water bubble (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14). The Vaishṇava who every day eats rice offered to Śrī Hari gains the fruit of one who has kept a hundred fasts, and the fruit of a jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 27); a brāhmaṇa who eats Vishṇu-prasāda is jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 83). Vaishṇavas are jīvanmuktas and purify a thousand forefathers, according to the śruti (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 85, Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10); by the presence of bhaktas, whoever dies anywhere, knowingly or not, becomes pure and jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10). Vishṇu-bhaktas are jīvanmuktas and lift up their kula (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 36). Śrī Hari’s bhaktas always meditate on him and are cirañjīvins, jīvanmuktas and without pāpa; Kṛshṇa’s bhaktas, bearing his aṃśa, are jīvanmuktas who take away the pāpa that pāpīs leave on the earth and in tīrthas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 63). Jīvanmukta sādhus see all equally and seek only the dāsya of Śrī Hari, not moksha (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Vasudeva, who worshipped him with the feeling of a son or of Brahman and attained him: “You will now be jīvanmukta” (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 7). One who in Bhārata sees with his own eyes the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛshṇa becomes worthy of pūjā and certainly jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 113). Thinking of Govinda, Rādhā became jīvanmuktā (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 97); by merely seeing Rādhā, Kalāvatī and Vṛshabhānu became jīvanmuktas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17).

The householder and the mantra. The householder who keeps his own dharma becomes jīvanmukta and gains puṇya, fame, wealth and happiness (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23). On receiving the Kṛshṇa mantra from a guru one becomes jīvanmukta and purifies tīrthas and the earth by touch (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 36); by receiving the Nārāyaṇa mantra from the guru one becomes a jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 60). A crore japas of Hari’s names in his kshetra make one free of pāpa and jīvanmukta, with sārūpya and no rebirth (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 27).

The kavacas and stotras. By the kavaca in the stotras of Vishṇu and Śaṅkara a man becomes jīvanmukta, and if it becomes siddha for him he becomes Vishṇu himself (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 19). All the maharshis who wore the Gaṇapati kavaca became jīvanmuktas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13). Bṛhaspati tells Indra that it was by wearing the Sūrya kavaca that all the munis became supremely pure and jīvanmuktas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 19). When the Śrī Kṛshṇa kavaca given to Paraśurāma gives siddhi, one becomes jīvanmukta and gains the fruit of worshipping Śrī Hari for a koṭi years (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 31). The devotee of Śrī Kṛshṇa who recites his stotra shines with fame like the sun and surely becomes jīvanmukta, healthy, virtuous and learned, with sons and wealth (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 32). By the grace of the Śaṅkara kavaca, the reciter becomes jīvanmukta, sarvajña, gains all siddhis and the power to go with the speed of mind (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35). By the power of the Rādhā-shoḍaśa-nāma stotra a man becomes a jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17).

Other deeds. The brāhmaṇa who worships the Śivaliṅga a lakh of times attains Śivatva, and the brāhmaṇa who worships the liṅga becomes jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 75). One who sees Candraśekhara in person becomes jīvanmukta and goes to the mandira of Hari; one who provides a brāhmaṇa with a livelihood becomes jīvanmukta, obtains unshaken wealth and the fourfold mukti, and devotion as Śrī Kṛshṇa’s servant (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 76). In the remedies for bad dreams, the japa of the ten names (Vishṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Kṛshṇa, Mādhava, Madhusūdana, Hari, Narahari, Rāma, Govinda and Dadhivāmana) a crore times makes the man a jīvanmukta (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 82). Kalāvatī and Vṛshabhānu, with their daughter, will go to Goloka as jīvanmuktas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 94).

Rādhā. Gaṇeśa, praising Rādhā at the Siddhāśrama, names among those who meditate on her rare, matchless lotus feet the devas, Brahmā, Īśa and Śesha, Sanaka and the lords of munis, the jīvanmuktas, the bhaktas, and Kapila and the lords of siddhas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 124).

Related terms: Mukti · Moksha · Ātma-jñāna · Jīva · Prārabdha · Guṇātīta

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 5, 9, 15; Skandha 3, Chapters 2, 5, 24, 27; Skandha 4, Chapters 13, 20, 22, 24, 29; Skandha 5, Chapters 1, 4–5; Skandha 6, Chapters 9, 16; Skandha 7, Chapter 11; Skandha 9, Chapter 17; Skandha 10, Chapters 1, 82; Skandha 11, Chapters 2–3, 9, 17, 19, 25, 29; Skandha 12, Chapter 12
  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 237
  • Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14, 19, 23, 27; Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 10, 27, 36, 60, 63; Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13, 19, 31–32, 35; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 7, 17, 75–76, 82–83, 85, 94, 97, 113, 124