Wednesday, February 17, 2016
The Liberated Person (Jivanmukta)
On Jivanmukta (the Liberated Person--from the "Yoga Vasistha")
The Yoga Vasistha describes the Jivanmukta, or liberated person, as follows (abridged from the 1896 translation by KN Aiyer):
He associates with the wise. He has reached the state of mind, which sees happiness everywhere. To him, neither sacrificial fires, nor Tapas, nor bounteous gifts nor holy waters have any meaning. He is replete with wisdom and friendly to all.
He is desireless and in his eyes there is nothing supernatural. His state is indescribable and yet he will move in the world like anybody else. His mind will not be bound by any longings after Karmas. He will be indifferent to joy or pains arising from good or bad results. He will preserve a pleasant position in the happy enjoyment of whatever he obtains.
He is never affected by anything, whether he is in a state of Jiva consciousness or state of Shiva devoid of the Jiva consciousness.
He is same whether he moves in a family or is a solitary recluse.
He feels unbound by the delusions of Srutis and Smritis.
Nothing matters to him, he is unaffected by griefs or pleasures. He is distant, he is close, he in the one Reality of Atman. He is neither clingy nor arrogant.
He has no fear of anyone, no anger against anyone.
When the attraction towards external objects ceases, then there yet remains the internal craving which is called Trishna (thirst). The Jivanmukta is beyond Trishna. He is, not becoming. He does not even long for salvation. He is content.
A Jivanmukta will always transact his present duties, but neither longs for things in the future, nor ruminates upon things of the past.
He is a child amongst children; as old men amongst the old; as the puissant amongst the puissant; as a youth amongst the young, compassionate and understanding with the grieved.
In him is found nobleness, benevolence, love, clearness of intellect.
(The "Yoga Vasisthha" is an ancient Indian text, thought to date somewhere between the 6th and the 14th century. The text consists of a discourse delivered to Prince Rama by the Sage Vasistha. It consists primarily of stories and examples, similar to those of the "Ramayana.")
Is it possible that when the full Kundalini awakens, the Jiva consciousness (little self) joins the Shiva consciousness (supra mundane consciousness--cosmic consciousness)? At that time we surrender our identification with our limited being and become one with that which is universal and eternal (and pure bliss).
This philosophy also posits that there is an element of the self (Jiva before it diminishes into the living being) that survives death and is reborn into a new configuration at the next birth. Thus, can we easily awaken our spiritual/energetic bodies if we bring in with us a high development of our subtle bodies, and thus begin more or less where we left off at our last incarnation? Does this explain spontaneous Kundalini awakening into rapture when there is no apparent preparation for such awakening? In this state, rapture becomes remembrance, re-experience of that which is now both strange and familiar. We may not remember the circumstance of such prior development, but we immediately recognize this ecstasy as part of who we are.
