On the attributes of a Jivanmukta

Sri Rama

1. O sage, please tell me again about that noble and magnanimous 'jivanmukta' who has grasped and perceived the essential nature and splendour of Self. Who can be satiated with your great teaching?

Sri Vasista

2. O mighty Rama, I have elaborated several times and in many ways on the attributes of a Jivanmukta. Even so, I shall repeat. Listen.

3. A jivanmukta is totally desireless. He appears always as one in deep sleep (while being active in the world). As one who knows the Self everything is non existent for him (And so he is disinterested in the world).

4. A knower of Self abides as one who is eternally emancipated, whose mind is completely asleep (silenced) and who is lost in the beatitude of the infinite.

5. -6 With a noble and equal mind, he is directed inwards. Even if he takes something (from anyone) with his hands, it is as if he has not taken. He looks at the ways of the people and smiles thinking that they are moving like robots.

7. He does not bother about future nor does he recollect the bygones. Without even worrying about the present, he does everything, merged in his Self.

8. Even during sleep he is awake. He is asleep while being awake. He does every work. Even so internally he is inactive (as if not active).

9. Inside he has renounced everything. All the time he is internally desireless. Externally he is active in works. Even so he abides in equality.

10. Externally he performs all works that come to him. He performs those works that come to him as tradition and those of friends and relatives.

11. He enjoys all pleasures completely as if they are blessings (of the Self). He does all works without falling into the confusion of self ownership.

12. He looks indifferent and unconcerned. However he does all works as they come to him in a perfect manner. He does neither desire anything nor reject anything. He never grieves nor feels happy.

13. -14 . He acts as if he has relationship and attachment to people but with a detached mind. He behaves like a devotee with a man of devotion. He behaves like a depraved person with a depraved person. He behaves like a child with children, like an old man with old men, like an young man with young people, like a man of sorrow with grieving people and like a courageous person with the courageous.

15. -17 . His speech is always about stories about merit and virtue. His mind is free of misery-causings ideas. He is full of delight caused by steadfast wisdom. He is tender in behaviour always singing sacred songs. He is wise and intelligent, softly sweet and fullfilled due to Self enlightenment. Misery and grief are expelled from him. He is a loving and affectionate friend of all. He is the very embodiment of nobility. He is equal. He is an ocean of gentleness. He is cool like a moon.

18. -19 . He has no use for either merit or sin, pleasures or renunciation of pleasures, inaction or action, bondage or liberation, heaven or netherworld.

20. When things are seen in their reality, when the reality of what is visible is clear, when the entire world is perceived as pervaded with Self, where is the misery in mind about bondage and liberation?

21. The bird, called mind, will fly out of the cage of doubt when the cage is burnt by the fire of complete knowledge.

22. -27 . When mind is liberated from bewilderment, it will abide in a state of equality. It neither subsides nor rises up. It will be like sky from all perceptions, same everywhere. The limbs of a knower of Self move like those of a child without any (seeming) coordination. He is ecstatic with bliss. He has no fear of reincarnation. His intelligence does not accept or receive anything; and so he never recollects anything done or not done. He will receive and cast away everything in all manners. For him it makes no difference since mentally he has not received anything of them. He acts like a child (with a sense of sport). He engages himself in works as they occur in time and space. Even so, not a little of the consequent joys and sorrows are accepted by him. Externally he is engaged in all actions and purposes. But inside he is free of all desire. He never unites either with the works or with the fruits of works. He never chases either of them.

28. -35 . He neither disregards the states of sorrow nor does he invite happy conditions. When work done by him yields good fruit, he does not become joyful nor does he grieve at a failure. A knower of Self is not surprised if the sun cools down, if the moon regions get hot and if flames fly down. Even the firm belief that all these are mere sparklings from consciousness-Self does not surprise him. He does not feel distressed if some compassion is shown to him. He never follows the path of cruelty. He is neither modest nor immodest. He is neither miserable nor elated. He is never careless. He is never sorrowful nor very agitated, nor extremely joyful. His mind is wide and expansive like an autumn sky. Anger and such emotions never arise in him. How can there be a sense of sorrow or joy with a world constantly beset with births and deaths? This world of five elements is like a foam on the sea. How can one talk of joy and sorrow with such a fickle form?

36. -44 . These innumerable beings are constantly becoming and moving into nonbecoming. Those jivanmuktas, who are capable of perceptions and creations will neither break down nor make efforts (for further activity). In one instant many things occur in a dream. Similarly this world of perceptions arise and set in a trice. Where is the question of joy or sorrow with reference to such occurences? (For a jivanmukta) good is nonexistent; and so happiness consequent to it does not exist. How can anyother different feeling like sorrow exist? When the sense of happiness is annihilated to the roots, when sense of happiness is quelled, how can there be an embedded sense of sorrow? With both senses rooted out, there can neither be something acceptable nor something disagreeable. And so the idea of good and bad also dies away. Consequently the desire for pleasure vanishes. Then follow the extinction of thoughts about hope and expectation. And so the mind gets dissolved. When mind dissolves, where is the question of mental resolves and determinations? When sesame seeds are burnt, the oil within vanishes. O great soul, liberated from such mental determinations, remain delighted in your own Self. Live as a 'jnani', contented always.