Jeevanmukta

Jeevanmukta

Normally every individual in his day-to-day life has to play in two roles:-
(1) To act as a Doer in the outer world to gain different kinds of experiences.
(2) As an 'experiencer', he has the option either to raise the level of his quality or  to decrease it.
However, to collect different kinds of experiences, he had to observe the happenings in the objective world.

As the man's experiences are gathered only by the experiences he has obtained with the help of his own observation, he may strive to raise either his 'standard of living' or his 'standard of life'.

If an individual is interested to  improve his quality by raising the level of his 'standard of life', he must know how to go inward and also must have the capacity to introspect.

Swami Chinmayanandha says "As the man progresses in his inward expansion, the lower tendencies in him will automatically drop off".

As he progresses well in his inward expansion, he will come to understand one basic truth...
instead of thinking "I am the body with a soul" he will always remember the fact that "I am the Soul in a body".

The success of any person in his inward journey can be measured by the following features:-
1. The conscious-mind of the individual gets integrated with the intellect.
2. Because of the integration, the mind cannot function on its own and the individual cannot react with emotion.
3. The senses which are having the knack of dragging the mind towards the sense-objects cannot do so now, as the mind is under the control of the intellect.
4. Because of the above-said reasons, the impressions already recorded in the subconscious-mind cannot provoke the conscious-mind to act without consulting the intellect
6. Even in the midst of the family, he knows how to keep himself away from the family.
7. He may possess many things; but, he will not have any 'possessor' feeling.

The individual might have sublimated his ego; yet he should continue the practices to fully eliminate the ego.

After the sublimation of the ego he may not be having the 'doer' feeling and he will function among the sense-objects as if he is a tool in 'HIS HANDS'.

His nature will be transformed and his 'svabhav' (mental attitude) will also be changed. He will attain 'Sattva Guna' vasana.

As he knows pretty well that only by removing all impressions from the 'vasana' layer the cycle of births and rebirths will come to an end,
he will continue his practices with a view  to achieving the final goal.

Henceforth he will not behave like an 'observer'. He will simply see the happenings in the outer world as a 'seer'. What is the difference between these two functions?

The differences in the functions of the 'Observer' and the 'Seer' are enumerated below:-
1. The 'observer' will always have the inclination to look into the happenings in the outer world. The 'seer' may not have such inclination.
2. When the 'observer' gets the information through the sense organs, the senses may misinterprete the information thereby misguiding the conscious-mind. Wheras the 'seer' will never consider the misinterpretation of the senses: the 'seer' will only see the happenings in the outer world.
3. The 'observer' can easily confuse the conscious-mind; whereas 'seer' cannot do so because of the integration of the conscious-mind with the intellect.
4. As long as the impressions are in the subconscious-mind, the individual can function only as an 'observer'. When all the impressions recorded in the subconscious-mind are removed, the 'Observer' will be replaced by the 'Seer'.

By the time the 'seer' emerges by replacing the 'observer', his body will be enveloped by the light of the Soul and he  realises the fact, which he already understood theoretically, that the 'Higer Self' is the 'Real Self'.

When the bliss-sheath is dissolved, the individual will lose his 'little-self' identify. He will be called "Jeevan-mukta" and his 'cycle of birth and death' will come to an end.