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VEDANTA (A) ADVAITA
381 bhava to distinguish it from lay experience, that accordingly becomes the final criterion of Truth here.
The jivan-mukta's life has two phases: It is either samādhi or mystic trance when he turns inwards and loses himself in Brahman; or the condition known as vyutthāna or reversion to common life when the spectacle of the world returns but does not delude him since he has once for all realized its metaphysical falsity. Diversity continues to appear then as the sun, we may say, continues to appear as moving even after we are convinced that it is stationary. A jivan-mukta experiences pain and pleasure, but neither really matters to him. He does not necessarily give up all activity as is abundantly illustrated by the strenuous life which Samkara himself led, but it does not proceed from any selfish impulse or even from a sense of obligation to others. Blind love for the narrow self which ordinarily characterizes man and the consequent clinging to the mere particular are in his case replaced by enlightened and therefore equal love for all. The basis for this universal love is furnished by the Upanisadic teaching 'That thou art.' We should do unto others as we do to ourselves, because they are ourselves-a view which places the golden rule of morality on the surest of foundations. Who sees all beings in himself and himself in all beings—he will dislike none,' as the Upanişad3 says; or as the Gītā puts it, 'He harms not self by self.'4 The common laws of social morality and ritual which are significant only in reference to one that is striving for perfection are meaningless for him.5 The jivan-mukta, having transcended the stage of strife, is spontaneously virtuous. Impulse and desire become one in him. He is not then realizing virtue but is revealing it. 'In one that has awakened to a knowledge of the self, virtues
Apart from the question of direct revelation, the Upanişads also should in the last resort be regarded as recording only such intuitional knowledge of ancient sages. See Note 4 on p. 182.
Cf Panca-dasi, vi. 270-8. It is interesting in this connection to refer to Samkara's statement at the end of his com. on VS. IV. i. 15, which tradition views as an allusion to his own direct experience of the ultimate truth. 3 Isa Up. 6. * xiii. 27. 5 Cf. Samkara on VS. II. iii. 48.
