[Advaita-l] How does one know he is a jivan mukta?

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms to all
 
There is one more litmus test that Scripture provides to know if one is jnaani or not. One can try to test himself if he thinks he is a jnaani or not.
 
In response to Swetaketu, Uddaalaka provides a story to prove this point. 
 
Once the police brought a man to the king accusing him as a thief as he stole some goods, based on circumstantial evidence. Since there were no other witnesses to prove or disprove, King asked him point blank to tell the truth if he stole the property or not. The man said with a straight face that he did not steel anything. Now King is in dilemma to know if the man is truthful or not, since he did not want to punish the person who did not steel. The king asked the servants to bring a red hot iron rod and when they brought, he asked the accused to touch it with his bare hands, saying that if he is telling the truth, then the truth will protect him and he will not get burned. If he is not telling the truth, then he will suffer due to burning. In addition, he will be further punished since it proves that he was not telling the truth and therefore he is a thief. Apparently when he touched it he was not burned and the King not only released him but
 honored him for his honesty compensating him for his troubles.
 
Now one can try this test, if any one thinks he has realized - but do not force your teacher to take the test!
 
Shankara provides a brilliant commentary for this.
 
In essence what Shree Rameshji said is correct. If one has realized and when he makes contact with the red-hot world, he will not get burned since the truth that he has realized will protect him. In addition, he is free from the cycle of births and deaths. He is considered as God-man on the earth helping others in realization. He becomes fulfillment of the scriptures itself and thus provides solid evidence that scriptures are indeed true. That is the glory of a realized soul there is a sloka that starts - kulam pavitram, jananii kRitaarthaa, visvambaraa punyavatii ca tena.. The family that he is born is gloried and the mother that gave birth to such a jnaani is blessed and the land that gave birth to such a jnaani is also blessed. Such is the nature of jnaani and jnaanam. 

Hari Om!
Sadananda
 
 
--- On Tue, 8/30/11, Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy at gmail.com> wrote:



Regarding the question of the certainty or otherwise of one's own status as
a j~nAnI:

How does one know that one is a saMsArI?

The answer to "how does one know that one is a j~nAnI" is no different from
the answer to the above.

There is really no question of doubt on this count.