Is a Jivanmukta Subject to Ignorance: A Rare Book

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Jivanmukta is he who is released or liberated in his life-time. There are other two states of release, Videhamukti and Kramamukti. The Upanishadic view is that there is in the highest condition a disintegration of individuality, a giving up of selfish isolation, but it is not a mere nothing or death “As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea losing their names and forms, thus a wise man, freed from name and forms, goes to the divine person who is beyond all “ The Upanishads do not recognise the ultimate reality of the narrow individual self Those who pray for personal immortality take their stand on the ultimateness of the individual and urge its maintenance beyond the world, the real infinite life. What is best in the individual’s nature is the infinite, and that persists beyond the limits of physical existence.

It is said that the liberated soul becomes one with all and lives a life in unity with God. The positive description seems to suggest a sense of individuality which helps him to act in this world, though this individuality is not based on any self-feeling this individualisation of life seems to be necessary for the fulfillment of the joy of the one supreme.

Even though for purposes of self-expression there is this possession of a centre of individuality. We are told that the soul is conscious of its glory and the greatness of immortality. It feels that God is at work in the cosmic drama, where the divine consciousness plays and acts the liberated individual also plays in the same drama with full possession of the truth. There is nothing which does not bend to his purposes “He maketh the winds His angels and the flaming fires His ministers”

In this book, the conception of liberation or release has been mainly dealt with according to the opinions of AdvaitaVedanta School as maintained by Shankara, Padmapada, Vimuktatman, Chitsukha Charya Madhusudana Sarasvati, Suresvaracharya, VidyAranya-Muni, Mandana Mishra, and others. Besides this, the opinions of the authors of Sarnkhepashflrfraka, Siddhdntalesh3c’mgraha, Yogavasistha-Ratnayaria together with the views of the Kashmere School of Saivism have also been discussed.

Three Appendices have been added to this book and the subject of “Ajnana in Advaita-Vedanta” has been discussed in the third Appendix to make the discussion of the book explicit.