A metaphysical & scientific study of the evolutionary prospects of the human body in the light of Sri Aurobindo's vision & assurance of the body's divine destiny.
Chapter VI
The passage describes the state of consciousness when one is aloof from all things even when in their midst and all is felt to be unreal, an illusion. There are then no preferences or desires because things are too unreal to desire or to prefer one to another. But, at the same time, one feels no necessity to flee from the world or not to do any action, because being free from the illusion, action or living in the world does not weigh upon one, one is not bound or involved.
(Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, pp. 682-83)
When one sees a mirage for the first time, he mistakes it for a reality, and after vainly trying to quench his thirst in it, learns that it is a mirage. But whenever he sees such a phenomenon in future, in spite of the apparent reality, the idea that he sees a mirage always presents itself to him. So is the world of Maya to a Jivanmukta (the liberated in life).
(Swami Vivekananda, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 104)
I am neither the doer nor the enjoyer. Actions have I none, past or present or future. I possess no body nor does bodylessness characterise my state. How can I say what is mine and what is not?
(Dattatreya, Avadhuta-Gita, 1.66)
We have seen in the previous chapter why the Yogic trance even if it be of the supreme sort, the Nirvikalpa Samadhi, fails to meet the demands of the Yoga of Transformation. As a matter of fact what we envisage for our goal is very much wider in base, far superior in scope and loftier in its flight than the attainments Offered by the Nirvikalpa trance. In Sri Aurobindo's own words, "the realisation of this yoga is not lower but higher than Nirvana or Nirvikalpa Samadhi."1 For, we do not want to be satisfied with inner psycho-spiritual experiences alone, we seek too the total and complete realisation of the Divine in the outer consciousness and in the life of action.
1 Letters on Yoga, p. 59.
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But the detractor may interject at this point: "The waking realisation that you are aiming at — has it not been already possessed by those who have been variously termed jīvanmukta ('liberated while still leading a bodily life'), sthitaprajña ('established in the true Knowledge and Wisdom'), ativarṇāśramī ('beyond all standards of conduct') or brahmavid ('one who has known and become the Brahman'1) ?" — the implication of the question being that there is after all nothing essentially new in the ideal we pursue.
But a little reflection will suffice to show that the Jivanmukti realisation or realisations of the same genre fall far short of the goal of divinised waking physical existence that is the object of our own Yoga. After all, who is a Jivanmukta? And what essentially characterises his comportment vis-a-vis this world of dynamic manifestation? For a suitable answer let us fall back upon three citations, chosen at random from amongst a host of others and culled from ancient texts as well as from those of our day.
First from the great Monistic text Yoga-Vasishtha Ramayana:
"The Jivanmukta is one to whose consciousness only the undifferentiated Vyoma exists and this phenomenal world has lost all reality, although his organs may appear to function as before.... He maintains his body with whatever little comes to it naturally and effortlessly.... He is called a Jivanmukta who is no more awake to the world of senses although his sense-organs appear to be awake as ever.... He who has transcended the ego-sense and does not get involved in action is indeed a Jivanmukta whether he is active or not."2
Now from Sri Ramakrishna: "He who has attained this knowledge of Brahman is a Jivanmukta, liberated while living in the body. He rightly understands that the Atman and the body are two separate things.... These two are separate like the kernel and the shell of the coconut while its milk dries up. The Atman moves, as it were, within the body.... The kernel of a green almond or betel-nut cannot be separated from the shell; but when they are ripe, the juice dries up and the kernel separates from the shell. After the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman, the 'milk' of worldly-mindedness dries up."3
1 Cf. "Brahmavid brahma eva bhavati" ("one who knows the Divine becomes the Divine").
2 Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha (Utpatti-Prakaraṇa), Sarga 9, Sls. 4,6,7,9.
3 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Advaita Ashram, Almora), p. 695.
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Finally a long excerpt from Swami Vivekananda: "...He has reached the perfection which the Advaitist wants to attain; and at that moment,...the veil of ignorance falls away from him, and he will feel his own nature. Even in this life, he will feel that he is one with the universe. For a time, as it were, the whole of this phenomenal world will disappear for him, and he will realise what he is. But so long as the Karma of this body remains, he will have to live. This state, when the veil has vanished and yet the body remains for some time, is what the Vedantist call Jivanmukti, the living freedom. If a man is deluded by a mirage for some time and one day the mirage disappears — if it comes back again next day or at some future time, he will not be deluded. Before the mirage first broke, the man could not distinguish between the reality and the deception. But when it has once broken, as long as he has organs and eyes to work with, he will see the image, but will no more be deluded. That fine distinction between the actual world and the mirage, he has caught, and the latter cannot delude him any more. So when the Vedantist has realised his own nature, the whole world has vanised for him. It will come back again, but no more the same world..."1
The above three excerpts purporting, to characterise the status of a Jivanmukta make it abundantly clear that prima facie Jivanmukti in the specific sense in which it is generally understood can by no means measure up to our ideal of the divinely dynamic transformation of the whole of our waking existence. But before we pass the final judgment it would be better for us to examine, in however brief a manner, some of the principal traits of the Jivanmukti-realisation.
Jīvanmukti and Videhamukti: Jivanmukti is never considered to be the goal in itself; it is, so to say, no more than a stop-gap arrangement, a wayside inn, — the ultimate goal, the goal par excellence, being always videhamukti or the liberation that is attained with the dissolution of the body. But this videhamukti or "disembodied liberation" is sought to be effected in two stages: the first stage, the penultimate attainment as it were, is reached when through the gaining of the true Knowledge of Reality of one's own being as well as of the world-existence, the propensity to future births in this phenomenal universe is altogether stamped
1 Swami Vivekananda, Complete Works, Vol. I, p. 365. (Italics ours)
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out; the second and final stage being the dropping off of the current body-formation and the attainment to the status of videhamukti. Jivanmukti represents the status of that seeker who has already attained Self-Knowledge but is still leading the present bodily life awaiting the day when this will cease for good and he will become "liberated in bodylessness" (videhamukta).
It follows then that the Jivanmukti status is the more valued, the more it approaches the character of Videhamukti even while the Siddha is still in his body. So the divine transformation of the bodily existence has here no relevance at all. As a matter of fact, the famous Vidyaranya Muni, one of the reputed authors of the Monistic Work Panchadashi, wrote a full treatise on Jivanmukti, called Jivanmukti-Viveka, only to prove at the end that after all Videhamukti is the summum bonum and Jivanmukti is a step towards this supreme goal.
But if this is so, the question arises: why, then, even after the attainment of Self-Realisation, should the Siddha agree at all to remain for some time in the body in the Jivanmukti status and not pass immediately and directly into Videhamukti, when the latter is the real objective sought after? The answer that is generally offered is in terms of the Theory of Karma which we have already discussed in Chapter I. Since Prarabdha Karmas1 (that is to say, those that have started bearing their fruits) have produced our present body and since these cannot be infructified except through their exhaustion by sufferance, even on the attainment of liberation, the body may continue to remain viable for some time, but for some time only. When the Prarabdhas are over, the body automatically disintegrates and the Jivanmukti status gives place to Videhamukti.
Thus the Jivanmukti realisation appears almost as the virtue of a necessity and the waking physical existence in this phenomenal universe cannot be considered in this view to be a field specially worthy of spiritualisation.
In order to substantiate the points that we have made above, we adduce below a few observations drawn from different sources.
"...After realising that state described in the scriptures, the saint sees the Self in all beings and in that consciousness devotes himself to service, so that any Karma that was yet left to be worked out
1 Vide Chapter I: The Bane of Oscillation.
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through the body may exhaust itself. It is this state which has been described by the authors of the Shastras (scriptures) as Jivanmukti, 'Freedom while living'. "(Italics ours)
(Swami Vivekananda, Complete Works, Vol. VII, pp. 112-113)
"A Devotee: 'Does the body remain even after the realization of God?'
Master: "The body survives with some so that they may work out their Prarabdha Karma or work for the welfare of others. ...Of course, he...escapes future births which would otherwise be necessary for reaping the results of his past Karma. His present body remains alive as long as its momentum is not exhausted; but future births are no longer possible. The wheel moves so long as the impulse that has set it in motion lasts. Then it comes to a stop.' "
(Italics ours)
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 431)
"The ultimate liberation [from the chain of births] is attained with the dawning of the Knowledge itself." ("jñānasamakālamu- ktaḥ kaivalyaṁ yāti" : Sheshacharya, Paramārthasāra or Arya-pañcāśiti, 81).
"Once a Jivanmukta, one has no more future births", ("bhūyo-janmavinirmuktaṁ jīvanmuktasya tanmanaḥ" : Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha Upashama-Prakarana, 90.18).
"He that has Knowledge...reaches that goal whence he is not born again" ("yastu vijñānavān bhavati...sa tu tatpadamāpnoti yasmād bhūyo na jāyate": Kaṭha-Upaniṣad, III.8).
"Even after attaining to the status of Jivanmukta, one continues for a while to remain in his body, merely to exhaust the momentum of the Prarabdha" ("prārabdhakarmavegena jīvanmukto yadā bhavet. Kañcit kālamathārabdhakarmavandhasya saṅkṣaye": Shankaracharya, Vākyavṛtti, 52).
"He has to wait [for his Videhamukti] only so long as he is not released from his body. At the fall of the body he attains to the supreme status" ("tasya tāvadeva ciraṁ yāvanna vimokṣe atha sampatsye": Chāndogya-Upaniṣad, 6.14.2).
"Once the Prarabdhas are experienced and gone through, one acquires the supreme liberation" ("bhogena tvitare kṣapayitvā sampadyate": Vyasa, Brahmasūtra, 4.1.19).
"Once the body gets consumed by Time, the Knower leaves his
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status of Jivanmukti and enters into the state of Videhamukti" ("jīvanmuktapadaṁ tyaktvā svadehe kālasātkṛte, viśatyadeha-muktatvam": Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha, II.9 14).
"When he takes up his abode in it, he grieves not, but when he is set free from it, that is his deliverance"1 ("anuṣṭhāya na śocati vimuktaśca vimucyate" : Kaṭha-Upaniṣad, V.I.).
"The Jivanmukta, even while he is still alive, has in reality no body at all" ("jīvato'pi aśariratvaṁ siddham": Shankar).
"The liberation that one gains at the fall of the body is indeed the highest one, for this liberation cannot be negatived any more" ("piṇḍapātena yā muktiḥ sa muktirna tu hanyate": Yogaśikho-paniṣad, 1.163).
"At the fall of his body the Yogi merges in his supreme self-being, just as the space inside an earthen pot vanishes in the great cosmic Space, when the pot is broken and gone" ("ghaṭe bhinne ghaṭākāśa ākāśe līyate yathā, dehābhāve tathā yogī svarūpe para-mātmani": Dattatreya, Avadhūta-Gītā; 1.69).
"Once one attains to Videhamukti, there is no more return to this phenomenal world" ("punārdvṛttirahitaṁ kaivalyaṁ prati-padyate": Shankaracharya, Vākyavṛtti).
"There is no more coming back for them" (tesāṁ na punar-āvṛtiḥ": Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 6.2.15).
"No more wheeling in this human whirlpool" ("imaṁ mānav-amāvartaṁ nāvartante": Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 8.15).
It is clear from what goes before that, contrary to our own attitude to the body and physical existence, the Jivanmukti ideal does not attach much importance to any terrestrial realisation as such; it only tolerates the bodily life so long as it has to be borne and thus tries, if we may say so, make the best of a bad bargain.
But whatever be the nature of the ideal sought, how does a Jivanmukta behave so far as his waking state is concerned? Does his dynamic life satisfy the criterion of a divinely purposive and active physical existence? Here too the answer is an unambiguous NO.
Jīvanmukta and the Dynamic Waking State: The goal we envisage for our sadhana is, as we have stressed so many times before, is "not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the
1 Sri Aurobindo's translation (Eight Upanishads, p. 77).
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supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter."1 It is thus almost an axiomatic truth that Yoga by works should form an indispensable part of our sadhana and an essential element of our realisation if we would seek to transplant the fullness of the spirit in the field of life and action. But the Jivanmukta does not in the least manifest this divine dynamis and thus does not measure up to our ideal.
As a matter of fact he is altogether indifferent to action (kurvato' kurvataḥ 2). For, although apparently still in his body, the Jivanmukta does not really participate in any of its workings. The world still appears before him, but he is no longer deceived by what he would call its māyā. Indeed he looks upon his body "a° if a corpse separated from his Self" ("svavapuḥ kuṇapamiva dṛśyate yatastadvapurapadhvastaṁ": Paramahaṁsa-Upaniṣad).
The result is that a Jivanmukta is indifferent to his bodily life. "Just as a person intoxicated with liquor is altogether oblivious of the absence or otherwise of his dress, so is the Jivanmukta of the state and location of his ephemeral body. Whether the body remains stationary at a place or gets displaced from there or even stumbles down is equal to him."3 Also, "the Brahmavid does never remember his body. It continues to be maintained by the Life-breath, prāṇa-vāyu, just as a trained horse goes on pulling the cart as ever even when the driver has withdrawn all his attention."4
Thus the bodily mechanism of a Jivanmukta may indeed continue to function because of the gathered force of Prakriti and he may apparently walk and speak and behave as before, but all this is like an empty machine in no way supported by any participating consciousness. The liberated spirit witnesses these actions (sākṣyahaṁ) but does not take part in them ("kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi: Yoga-śikhopaniṣad, IV.45). There is no sense of personal action (na kurve nāpi kāraye5) hence for the Jivanmukta there is no bondage or responsibility (na sa muḍhavalli-pyate6; mamākarturalepasya7).
1 Letters on Yoga, p. 505.
2 Yoga-Vāsistha, III.9.9.
3Bhāgavatam, XI. 13.36.
4 Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 8.12.3.
5 6 7 Avadhutopanisad, 25, 6, 22.
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As a matter of fact, it is the organs of sense and action that become automatically active for the continued maintenance of the body (cakṣurādīndriyaṁ svataḥ pravartate vahiḥsvārthe1) and the Jivanmukta himself living all the while "in communion of oneness with the Transcendent" seems to the outward eye to be acting as a somnambulist (suptabuddhavat2). For "although he has eyes, he acts as the eyeless; although he has ears, he acts as the earless; although he has speech, he acts as the speechless; and although he has life, he acts as the lifeless.' "3
Thus there cannot be any dynamically purposive action in the life of a Jivanmukta. He participates, if at all, only in simple innocuous actions meant solely for the upkeep of the body (kevalam śārīraṁ karma4), or in those which are occasioned by his previous Samskaras ("purvācārakramāgataṁ ācāramācaranti"5) or at the most in those apparently significant actions which are brought about not through his personal initiation but only through the agency of the Prarabdha (yathāprāptaṁ hi kartyav-yam, kuru kāryaṁ yathāgatam6).
The foregoing analysis shows unmistakably that Jivanmukti as traditionally conceived cannot at all be equated to our ideal. What we aim at is something radically different from this status of inner liberation.
1Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha, III.52.59.
2Ibid., III.118.19, III.9.7, III.16.22, III.88.13, VII.1.8.
3"sacakṣuracakṣuriva sakarṇo' karṇa iva savāgavāgiva saprāṇo'prāṇa iva" (cited in Jivanmukti-Viveka by Vidyaranya Muni).
4Dattatreya, Jivanmukti Gītā, 8.
6 Ibid., III.88. 11-13.
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