A jivanmukta is one who has realized one’s true nature, Brahman, and lives in the body but is free from all bonds, sense-cravings, and has a clear understanding of the truth. Such a person has risen above the plane of gains or losses. So long as the effect of actions of such person, done before realising Brahman, produce their effects, the body of the jivanmukta remains.
It is like a potter’s wheel that will stop revolving only when the momentum it has received has worn itself out. The dissolution of the physical frame will take place only when the prarabdha karma that has given rise to this body has been exhausted.
Even a few words of the jivanmukta produce a tremendous impression on the listeners. A jivanmukta is not miserable, is not anxious over the past and the future, and remains calm regardless of what is happening in the present. Such a person always remains unattached to the material world due to the awareness that this gross body is perishable, and such a person does not attach any significance to this body and is least interested in names and forms.
Being indifferent to the actions and reactions of the senses and the body, a jivanmukta is totally bereft of the feelings of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. A jivanmukta does not offend anybody by thought, word, and deed, and is not hurt even a bit by taunts, censures, insults, and persecutions. Such a person maintains balance or equanimity of mind amidst the duality of world: censure and praise, honour and dishonour, pleasure and pain. A jivanmukta is above good and evil, virtue and vice, and finds no fault with others. Such a person is a powerhouse of spiritual energy, who sees all these through the eye of knowledge.