Jivanmukti

(“liberation while living”) In later Indian
philosophy, the notion that one can
attain final liberation of the soul while
still living and continue to live after that
in a liberated state. The jivanmukta
(one who is liberated while still living) is
an important claim for many of the subschools of Advaita Vedanta, one of the
six schools of classical Indian philosophy. The Advaita school upholds a philosophical position known as monism,
which is the belief that a single Ultimate
Reality known as Brahman lies behind
all things, and that all things are merely
differing forms of that reality. For
Advaita proponents, the problem of
human bondage is that human beings,
blinded by avidya or mistaken understanding, do not recognize this ultimate
unity. Liberation is not attained by
“doing” anything or by becoming something that one is not, but by realizing
what has always been the case, and thus
exchanging a mistaken understanding
for a correct one. Although this cognition forever changes how a person perceives the world, it brings no ontological
changes, meaning that on a physical
level one continues to exist as before,
until the karma that has created one’s
present body is exhausted. For further
information see Karl H. Potter (ed.),
Advaita Vedanta up to Samkara and His
Pupils, 1981.