A section from the journey
Free While Still Living
We learned that moksha is release from the wheel of rebirth. But the sages plant a startling hope. Freedom need not wait for the body to fall away. The one who truly knows the Self can be free here and now, walking and breathing among us. The tradition will later give this a name: jivanmukti, liberation while living.
Let us gather a thread we left earlier. We learned about , the great release — freedom from the long wheel of birth and death. It is the goal the seekers longed for above all.
Now it would be easy to picture that freedom as something that comes only at the very end. You live your whole life bound, the thought might go, and only when the body falls away at last are you set free. But the sages hint at something far bolder, and far more hopeful. Listen closely.
Remember what they said sets us free. Not a place we reach. Not a reward we earn after dying. They said it is knowing — truly waking to the Self, seeing that the rider within is the one deathless reality. And here is the wonder: knowing can dawn now. This very life. This very day.
So the one who truly wakes does not have to wait. That person is already free, even while still walking and breathing here among us. The fear of death loosens its cold grip. The endless pull of wanting begins to ease. A great quiet settles in, because the thing one was always frightened of losing was never the real Self at all.
And notice what such a freedom looks like, for it is not what we might expect. The freed one does not float away or stop being a person. He still eats and sleeps and works. She still laughs and grows old. From the outside, an ordinary life. But within, it is lived from a place of deep peace — no longer driven, no longer bound, like a chariot at last well driven.
The later tradition gives this hope a beautiful name. It calls it — liberation while living. And it calls such a freed one a jivanmukta, one who is released and yet still alive. The name comes later, but the seed of it is here, glimpsed between the lines of these forest teachings.
Hold how much this changes. If freedom waited only for death, it would be a distant thing, out of reach, almost a rumour. But if it is a waking, then it is near. It does not lie beyond the grave. It lies behind your own eyes, waiting. The seekers believed the journey home could begin today.
Think of a moment when a fear you had carried for a long time suddenly lifted, and you felt light and free, though nothing outside you had changed. The sages would say you tasted, for an instant, what they sought always. What might it be like to live more often from that lightness?
Earlier in this era we met moksha, release from the long round of birth and death. It would be easy to imagine that such freedom comes only at the very end, when the body drops away. But the Upanishads plant a bolder and more beautiful hope. They hint that release is not mainly about what happens after death. It is about knowing. And knowing can dawn now. The one who truly wakes to the Self, who sees that the rider in the chariot is the deathless reality itself, is already free, even while still walking and breathing among us. The fear of death loosens. The grip of craving eases. Such a person still lives an ordinary life, eats and sleeps and works, but lives it from a place of deep peace, no longer driven and bound. The later tradition gives this a lovely name: jivanmukti, liberation while living, and calls such a freed one a jivanmukta. Here it is only a seed, a hint glimpsed between the lines. But it changes everything. It means the goal is not a far-off reward. It is a waking, and the waking can begin today.
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