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New Testament · Step 5

Abiding states and continuity of practice

The question many meditators eventually ask is: what is it called when someone does not just visit the divine state but lives in it? Below is a sourced answer and four key terms.

The term for a master who remains in the divine state all the time

Four key terms

Sahaja samadhi: the natural, continuous state

“Remaining in the primal, pure natural state without effort is Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samādhi.”— Ramana Maharshi, Talks, Talk 391 · source

In Talk 187 Ramana contrasts it with kevala (temporary) nirvikalpa samadhi. In kevala samadhi the mind is “like a bucket with the rope, left lying in the water in a well … to be drawn out by the other end of the rope.” In sahaja it is “like a river discharged into the ocean and its identity lost” (Talk 187; the same table appears in Maharshi’s Gospel). The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna records the Bauls calling “the state of perfection … the ‘sahaja’, the ‘natural’ state” (ch. 27).

Terminology note: Yogananda uses “nirbikalpa” for what Ramana calls sahaja, a state in which one “moves freely in the world and performs his outward duties without any loss of God-realization” (Autobiography, ch. 43, fn. 1). Usage varies between teachers, so always check whose definitions you are reading.

Bhava samadhi: ecstatic devotional absorption

“Ecstasy in which the devotee retains his ego and enjoys communion with the Personal God.”— Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, glossary, “bhava samadhi” · source

“Second, bhava samadhi: one attains this by following the path of bhakti. In this second samadhi a trace of ego remains, like a line, in order to enable the devotee to enjoy God, to taste His lila.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 42 “The Car Festival” · source

The Gospel repeatedly shows Ramakrishna going into samadhi during devotional singing and dancing. Its introduction describes him moving between devotion and absorption in the Absolute:

“Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity.”— Gospel, Introduction, “Kali and Maya” (Nikhilananda). The same passage says he was asked to remain “in bhavamukha … the border line between the Absolute and the Relative.” · source

Nirvikalpa samadhi: absorption without distinctions

“The highest tate of samadhi, in which the aspirant realizes his total oneness with Brahman.”— Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, glossary (the typo “tate” is in the source) · source

“Merging in Reality and remaining unaware of the world is nirvikalpa samādhi.”— Ramana Maharshi, Talks, Talk 391 · source

“In nirvikalpa samadhi ego, name, and form do not exist.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 24 · source

Its counterpart, savikalpa samadhi, is “communion with God in which the distinction between subject and object is retained” (glossary).

Jivanmukta: one liberated while living

“jivanmukta: One liberated from maya while living in the body.”— Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, glossary · source

“Even after attaining Knowledge through the guru's grace, one can very well live in the world as a jivanmukta.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 11 · source

“A SIDDHA (“perfected being”) has progressed from the state of a JIVANMUKTA (“freed while living”) to that of a PARAMUKTA (“supremely free”-full power over death)”— Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 33 · source

The opposite term is videhamukti, liberation after death. Jivanmukti is accepted by Advaita Vedanta and by the Yoga tradition (Wikipedia overview, with scholarly references).

More below: the jivanmukta and the holy touch: the word, its texts, darshan, shaktipat, and the touch in the Gospels and in Ramakrishna’s life.

The jivanmukta and the holy touch

Many people meet the word jivanmukta as a name for a pure, holy person whose presence or touch seems to carry power. This section separates what the word itself means from the related ideas of darshan, shaktipat and diksha, then sets the Indian accounts beside the New Testament’s accounts of healing touch. It ends with the warnings both traditions give.

The word

Definitions from the sources

“jivanmukta: One liberated from maya while living in the body.”— Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, glossary · source

“He who has attained this Knowledge of Brahman is a jivanmukta, liberated while living in the body.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 37 · source

“The mind of the Sage who has realized the Self is wholly destroyed. It is dead. But to the onlooker, he may seem to possess a mind just like the layman.”— Maharshi’s Gospel (Ramana Maharshi) · source

The Bhagavad Gita never uses the word jivanmukta, but its portrait of the sthitaprajna, “one of steady mind” (2.55–72), is the classic description of the liberated person still living in the world:

“When a man, O son of Prithâ! abandons all the desires of his heart, and is pleased in his self only and by his self, he is then called one of steady mind. He whose heart is not agitated in the midst of calamities, who has no longing for pleasures, and from whom (the feelings of) affection, fear, and wrath have departed, is called a sage of steady mind.”— Gita 2.55–56, tr. K. T. Telang (1882; footnote numbers and page markers omitted) · source

Strictly, then, jivanmukta names inner freedom, not a power. Indian sources do not say every jivanmukta transmits anything by touch. The “holy touch” belongs to a related set of ideas about the guru, described next.

Darshan, shaktipat and diksha

Darshan: “seeing” and being seen by the holy

“the beholding of a deity (especially in image form), revered person, or sacred object. The experience is considered to be reciprocal and results in the human viewer’s receiving a blessing.”— Encyclopaedia Britannica, “darshan” · source

Britannica adds that darshan “is also imparted by gurus.” Ramana Maharshi described the same reciprocity: “the devotee’s ignorance, like the phantom of darkness, vanishes at the look of the Guru” (Maharshi’s Gospel).

Shaktipat: the “descent of power”

“the transmission (or conferring) of spiritual energy upon one person by another or directly from the deity”— Wikipedia, “Shaktipat” (śakti, power + pāta, to fall) · source

The same article says it can be given “by a look, thought or touch,” and that it is “considered an act of grace … It cannot be imposed by force, nor can a receiver make it happen.”

Diksha: initiation, including by touch

“Initiation by touch is called sparśa dīkṣā. The bestowing of divine grace through diksa is sometimes called śaktipāta.”— Wikipedia, “Diksha” · source

Transmission in silence

“Compare him with another, who sits in a holy presence and goes away after sometime with his outlook on life totally changed. Which is better, to preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending out inner force?”— Ramana Maharshi, Maharshi’s Gospel, “Silence and Solitude” · source

Ramakrishna and Narendra (Vivekananda)

Swami Nikhilananda’s introduction to the Gospel records three touches during the young Narendra’s first visits:

“During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and everything around him whirling and vanishing. 'What are you doing to me?' he cried in terror. 'I have my father and mother at home.'”— Gospel, Introduction, “Narendra” · source

“Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God.”— Gospel, Introduction, “Narendra” · source

“This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely.”— Gospel, Introduction, “Narendra” · source

Near the end, at Cossipore, the same account describes a transmission without touch:

“Narendra felt the penetration of a subtle force and lost all outer consciousness. Regaining presently the normal mood, he found the Master weeping. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "Today I have given you my all and I am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing."”— Gospel, Introduction, “Last Days at Cossipore” · source

Kalpataru Day: January 1, 1886

“On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little stroll.”— Gospel, Introduction, “Last Days at Cossipore” · source

“He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.”— Gospel, Introduction, “Last Days at Cossipore” · source

The Gospel glossary defines Kalpataru as “The Wish-fulfilling Tree; refers to God” (glossary). The disciple Ramachandra Dutta named the anniversary “Kalpataru Day.” It is still kept every January 1 by the Ramakrishna Order (Wikipedia, “Kalpataru Day”).

Yogananda and Sri Yukteswar

“He struck gently on my chest above the heart. My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore.”— Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 14, “An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness” · source

The New Testament: power that “went out” through touch

“And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”— Mark 5:25-34, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

Luke tells the same story in 8:43–48, ending “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace” (Luke 8:43–48, KJV).

“And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.”— Luke 6:19, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

“And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.”— Matthew 14:36, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

In Acts the same power is described as passing through the apostles, even through cloth or a shadow:

“Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.”— Acts 5:15, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

“And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”— Acts 19:11-12, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

The laying on of hands also conveys the Spirit and a spiritual gift, which is the nearest New Testament parallel to diksha:

“Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”— Acts 8:17, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”— 2 Timothy 1:6, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

Continuity of practice