Liberation attained while still alive and embodied — the sage who is free still walks, eats, and acts, yet is untouched.
Common misconception
It is not a trance or withdrawal; the jivanmukta lives ordinarily, but without the knot of ego and craving.
The question it leaves you holding
If someone were already free, how would their everyday actions look any different from yours?
Schools that center this concept
Advaita Vedanta — Shankara's non-dualism: only Brahman is real; the individual self is that one Self, mistaking itself as many.
Yoga — Patanjali's discipline: still the mind's movements and the Self rests in its own nature, free of nature's play.
Debates this concept decides
Freedom Now, or Only After Death? — Can you be liberated while still alive and walking around — jivanmukti — or does release come only when the body falls?
