Is it possible for an ordinary soul to become Jeevanmukta without enlightenment?

[Smt. Chhanda Chandra: Padanamaskaram Swami, In one of the lectures on Knowing and Being, Swami Sarvapriyananda Maharaj from Ramkrishna Mission said that enlightened people get liberation surely at the end of their lives even though they are not jeevanmukta. To get jeevanmukti, one needs to practice in life itself. In this regard, please clarify following points in an elaborated way more specifically on enlightenment as you have made us understand the meaning of jeevanmukti  very clearly. At Your divine lotus feet Chhanda.

a) Is it possible for an ordinary soul to become a Jeevanmukta without being enlightened?

b) How are these two correlated exactly? What should be the approach to achieve this enlightenment practically?]

Swami replied:- First, we must understand the meaning of the word mukti or salvation. Salvation means liberation from the fascinations of worldly bonds due to the fascination towards God. Salvation is a subsequent spontaneous process following the strong fascination to God. Salvation is like leaving the attachment to worldly drinks after tasting the divine nectar. Therefore, salvation is not the main point. Fascination to God is the main point on which we have to concentrate. Concentration on achieving the divine nectar shall be done and detachment of worldly drinks is a spontaneous subsequent process after tasting the divine nectar. We must try to achieve devotion to God and we need not try for detaching ourselves from these worldly bonds. Detachment from worldly bonds happens by itself once we are strongly attached to God. Hence, all our trials must be positive in achieving the devotion to God and our trials must not be negative in getting detachment from worldly bonds. Without attachment to God, it is impossible to get detachment from worldly bonds because mind has inherent nature to attach to something always. Whatever you achieve while you are alive, you will continue in that state only after death. This world is called karma loka (Martya loka) in which you can achieve anything by your karma or practice. After death, there is no karma or action and hence, you cannot achieve anything new after death. Veda says that if you achieve here, you will continue with such achievement and if you don’t achieve here, you will not achieve anywhere resulting in total loss. Practical aspects are always greater than the theoretical concepts in any effort. But, theoretical concepts are also very important to be known and such knowledge is called enlightenment. Theory is the source of practice and without theory, the practice will be in a wrong direction. Hence, the first step is theory (spiritual knowledge) that generates emotional force (devotion) with the help of which the theory is transformed in to practice. Practice is like the mango plant which alone brings the final divine fruit, but theory is both water and manure. Knowledge is the water and devotion is the manure. Theory will lead into correct practice. The pest that attacks the practice-plant is selfish desire and it has to be killed by the Sadguru-pesticide.

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