| Essence Of Hinduism |
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HINDU PHILOSOPHY |
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| The Upanisad says:
- "He who truly knows the Supreme Brahman becomes Brahman." There is nothing to prevent a man from reaching this state even in this life. A man who has reached that state in this life is called a Jivanmukta. By the great experience of Samyakdarsana the effects of his former karma are destroyed except the small fraction of prarabdha which has come to fruition in the present body. He remains in the body till the effects of this are over. As his present actions are the outcome not of his own individual desire, but of his service to God, they bear no seeds of future lives; and as his devotions are the out come not of any impassable gulf between him and God but of his close and constant association with Him, they need no further life of probation. So a Jivanmukta acts in the world and worships God, but he is absolutely free. Some people think that the whole of the Bhagavad Gita may be looked upon as an exposition of this character. For the ideal Yogin that it describes is virtually a Jivanmukta. He possesses, on the one hand, an unclouded experience of the absolute reality of Brahman and of the identity of his own soul with it, and on the other, the consciousness of the relative character of all that is different from it, namely, the world, his own body and the other upadhis of the soul. He has no pains, no sorrows, no fears and no desires. He is far above the pleasures of this world. Sin cannot approach him and he need not make any efforts to be virtuous. He has no need of prayers, as he feels the holy presence of God in him constantly, and life is no mystery to him. Scriptures are superfluous to him, as they have fulfilled their object. |
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| About Hindu Philosophy |
