Chapter 4 of Tejo Bindu Upanishad is dedicated to Jivan mukta and Videha mukta
Jivan Mukta
Kumara asked the great Lord: “Please explain to me the nature of Jivanmukti (embodied salvation) and Videhamukti (disembodied salvation).” To which the great Shiva replied:
1. “I am Chidatma. I am Para-Atma. I am the Nirguna, greater than the great. One who will simply stay in Atman is called a Jivanmukta.
2. He who realises: ‘I am beyond the three bodies, I am the pure consciousness and I am Brahman’, is said to be a Jivanmukta.
3. He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realises: ‘I am of the nature of the blissful and of the supreme bliss, and I have neither body nor any other thing except the certitude ‘I am Brahman’ only.
4-6. He is said to be a Jivanmukta who has not at all got the ‘I’ in myself, but who stays in Chinmatra (absolute consciousness) alone, whose interior is consciousness alone, who is only of the nature of Chinmatra, whose Atman is of the nature of the all-full, who has Atman left over in all, who is devoted to bliss, who is undifferentiated, who is all-full of the nature of consciousness, whose Atman is of the nature of pure consciousness, who has given up all affinities (for objects), who has unconditioned bliss, whose Atman is tranquil, who has got no other thought (than Itself) and who is devoid of the thought of the existence of anything.
7-11(a). He is said to be a Jivanmukta who realises: ‘I have no Chitta, no Buddhi, no Ahamkara, no sense, no body at any time, no Pranas, no Maya, no passion and no anger, I am the great, I have nothing of these objects or of the world and I have no sin, no characteristics, no eye, no Manas, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no hand, no waking, no dreaming, or causal state in the least or the fourth state.’
11(b)-30(a). He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realises: ‘All this is not mind, I have no time, no space, no object, no thought, no Snana (bathing), no Sandhyas( junction-period ceremonies), no deity, no place, no sacred places, no worship, no spiritual wisdom, no seat, no relative, no birth, no speech, no wealth, no virtue, no vice, no duty, no auspiciousness, no Jiva, not even the three worlds, no salvation, no duality, no Vedas, no mandatory rules, no proximity, no distance, no knowledge, no secrecy, no Guru, no disciple, no diminution, no excess, no Brahma, no Vishnu, no Rudra, no moon, no earth, no water, no Vayu, no Akasa, no Agni, no clan, no Lakshya (object aimed at), no mundane existence, no meditator, no object of meditation, no Mans, no cold, no heat, no thirst, no hunger, no friend, no foe, no illusion, no victory, no past, present, or future, no quarters, nothing to be said or heard in the least, nothing to be gone to (or attained), nothing to be contemplated, enjoyed or remembered, no enjoyment, no desire, no Yoga, no absorption, no garrulity, no quietude, no bondage, no love, no joy, no instant joy, no hugeness, no smallness, neither length nor shortness, neither increase nor decrease, neither Adhyaropa (illusory attribution) nor Apavada (withdrawal of that conception) , no oneness, no manyness, no blindness, no dullness, no skill, no flesh, no blood, no lymph, no skin, no marrow, no bone, no skin, none of the seven Dhatus, no whiteness, no redness, no blueness, no heat, no gain, neither importance nor non-importance, no delusion, no perseverance, no mystery, no race, nothing to be abandoned or received, nothing to be laughed at, no policy, no religious vow, no fault, no bewailments, no happiness, neither knower nor knowledge nor the knowable, no Self, nothing belonging to you or to me, neither you nor I, and neither old age nor youth nor manhood; but I am certainly Brahman. ‘I am certainly Brahman. I am Chit, I am Chit’.
30(b)-31. He is said to be a Jivanmukta who cognises: ‘I am Brahman alone, I am Chit alone, I am the supreme’. No doubt need be entertained about this; ‘I am Hamsa itself, I remain of my own will, I can see myself through myself, I reign happy in the kingdom of Atman and enjoy in myself the bliss of my own Atman’.
32. He is a Jivanmukta who is himself, the foremost and the one undaunted person who is himself the lord and rests in his own Self.
Videha Mukta
33. He is a Videhamukta who has become Brahman, whose Atman has attained quiescence, who is of the nature of Brahmic bliss, who is happy, who is of a pure nature and who is a great Mouni (observer of silence).
34-37. He is a Videhamukta who remains in Chinmatra alone without (even) thinking thus: ‘I am all Atman, the Atman that is equal (or the same) in all, the pure, without one, the non-dual, the all, the self only, the birthless and the deathless – I am myself the undecaying Atman that is the object aimed at, the sporting, the silent, the blissful, the beloved and the bondless salvation – I am Brahman alone – I am Chit alone’.
38. He is a Videhamukta who having abandoned the thought: ‘I alone am the Brahman’ is filled with bliss.
39-47(a). He is a Videhamukta who having given up the certainty of the existence or non-existence of all objects is pure Chidananda (the consciousness-bliss), who having abandoned (the thought): ‘I am Brahman’ (or) ‘I am not Brahman’ does not mingle his Atman with anything, anywhere or at any time, who is ever silent with the silence of Satya, who does nothing, who has gone beyond Gunas, whose Atman has become the All, the great and the purifier of the elements, who does not cognise the change of time, matter, place, himself or other differences, who does not see (the difference of) ‘I’, ‘thou’, ‘this’, or ‘that’, who being of the nature of time is yet without it, whose Atman is void, subtle and universal, but yet without (them), whose Atman is divine and yet without Devas, whose Atman is measurable and yet without measure, whose Atman is without inertness and within every one, whose Atman is devoid of any Sankalpa, who thinks always: ‘I am Chinmatra, I am simply Paramatman, I am only of the nature of spiritual wisdom, I am only of the nature of Sat, I am afraid of nothing in this world’, and who is without the conception of Devas, Vedas and sciences, ‘All this is consciousness, etc.,’ and regards all as void.
47(b)-48. He is a Videhamukta who has realised himself to be Chaitanya alone, who is remaining at ease in the pleasure-garden of his own Atman, whose Atman is of an illimitable nature, who is without conception of the small and the great and who is the fourth of the fourth state and the supreme bliss.
49-53(a). He is a Videhamukta whose Atman is nameless and formless, who is the great spiritual wisdom of the nature of bliss and of the nature of the state beyond Turya, who is neither auspicious nor inauspicious, who has Yoga as his Atman, whose Atman is associated with Yoga, who is free from bondage or freedom, without Guna or non-Guna, without space, time, etc., without the witnessable and the witness, without the small or the great and without the cognition of the universe or even the cognition of the nature of Brahman, but who finds his spiritual effulgence in his own nature, who finds bliss in himself, whose bliss is beyond the scope of words and mind and whose thought is beyond the beyond.
53(b)-54. He is said to be a Videhamukta who has gone beyond (or mastered quite) the modifications of Chitta, who illumines such modifications and whose Atman is without any modifications at all. In that case, he is neither embodied nor disembodied. If such a thought is entertained (even), for a moment, then he is surrounded (in thought) by all.
55-62. He is a Videhamukta whose external Atman invisible to others is the supreme bliss aiming at the highest Vedanta, who drinks of the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who has the nectar of Brahman as medicine, who is devoted to the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who is immersed in that juice, who has the beneficent worship of the Brahmic bliss, who is not satiated with the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who realises Brahmic bliss, who cognises the Shiva bliss in Brahmic bliss, who has the effulgence of the essence of Brahmic bliss, who has become one with it, who lives in the household of Brahmic bliss, has mounted the car of Brahmic bliss, who has an imponderable Chit being one with it, who is supporting (all), being full of it, who associates with me having it, who stays in Atman having that bliss and who thinks: ‘All this is of the nature of Atman, there is nothing else beside Atman, all is Atman, I am Atman, the great Atman, the supreme Atman and Atman of the form of bliss’.
63-68(a). He who thinks: ‘My nature is full, I am the great Atman, I am the all-contented and the permanent Atman. I am the Atman pervading the heart of all, which is not stained by anything, but which has no Atman; I am the Atman whose nature is changeless, I am the quiescent Atman; and I am the many Atman’. He who does not think this is Jivatma and that is Paramatma, whose Atman is of the nature of the emancipated and the non-emancipated, but without emancipation or bondage, whose Atman is of the nature of the dual and the non-dual one, but without duality and non-duality; whose Atman is of the nature of the All and the non-All, but without them; whose Atman is of the nature of the happiness arising from objects obtained and enjoyed, but without it; and who is devoid of any Sankalpa – such a man is a Videhamukta.
68(b)-79. He whose Atman is partless, stainless, enlightened, Purusha, without bliss, etc., of the nature of the nectar, of the nature of the three periods of time, but without them; whose Atman is entire and non-measurable, being subject to proof though without proof; whose Atman is the eternal and the witness, but without eternality and witness; whose Atman is of the nature of the secondless, who is the self-shining one without a second, whose Atman cannot be measured by Vidya and Avidya but without them; whose Atman is without conditionedness or unconditionedness, who is without this or the higher worlds, whose Atman is without the six things beginning with Sama, who is without the qualifications of the aspirant after salvation, whose Atman is without gross, subtle, causal and the fourth bodies and without the Anna, Prana, Manas and Vijnana sheaths; whose Atman is of the nature of Ananda (bliss) sheath, but without five sheaths; whose Atman is of the nature of Nirvikalpa, is devoid of Sankalpa, without the characteristics of the visible or the audible and of the nature of void, owing to unceasing Samadhi, who is without beginning, middle, or end; whose Atman is devoid of the word Prajnana, who is without the idea ‘I am Brahman’, whose Atman is devoid (of the thought) of ‘thou art’, who is without the thought ‘this is Atman’, whose Atman is devoid of that which is described by Om, who is above the reach of any speech or the three states and is the indestructible and the Chidatma, whose Atman is not the one which can be known by Atman and whose Atman has neither light nor darkness. Such a personage is a Videhamukta.
80-81. Look only upon Atman; know It as your own. Enjoy your Atman yourself and stay in peace. O six-faced one, be content in your own Atman, be wandering in your own Atman and be enjoying your own Atman. Then you will attain Videhamukti”.
Thus ends the fourth chapter.
