Jivanmukta is someone who, in the Advaita

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

 philosophy of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

, has attained nirvikalpa

Nirvikalpa

Nirvikalpa is a Sanskrit adjective with the general sense of "not admitting an alternative", formed by applying the contra-existential prepositional prefix to the term .-Usage:...

 samadhi

Samadhi

Samadhi in Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali....

 - the realization of the Self, Parasiva

Parasiva

In Hinduism, Parasiva is the aspect of Siva, the Absolute which is beyond human comprehension and is beyond all attributes. In Saivite theology, the term is similar to Nirguna Brahman....

 - and is liberated from rebirth while living in a human body.

Jivanmukta is a unique concept in Hindu philosophy, particularly in the school of philosophy known as Advaita. The ultimate goal of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 is liberation from the cycles of re-birth

Samsara

thumb|right|200px|Traditional Tibetan painting or [[Thanka]] showing the [[wheel of life]] and realms of saṃsāraSaṅsāra or Saṃsāra , , literally meaning "continuous flow", is the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth or reincarnation within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Sikhism, and other...

. This liberation is technically called 'moksha

Moksha

Within Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...

'. In all schools of Hindu philosophy (except Advaita) liberation is necessarily an event beyond the experience of human beings. But the Advaita school of Shankara

Adi Shankara

Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...

 envisages that human beings are already liberated and the soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

 is already free - one has only to realise (and to accept) this freedom. Souls who have had this realisation are called jivanmuktas.

There are three kinds of Prarabdha karma

Prarabdha karma

Prarabdha Karma are the part of sanchita karma, a collection of past karmas, which are ready to be experienced through the present body ....

: Ichha (personally desired), Anichha (without desire) and Parechha (due to others' desire). For a self realized person, a Jivanmukta, there is no Ichha-Prarabdha but the two others, Anichha and Parechha, remain , which even a jivanmukta has to undergo .

In the sramanic traditions the jivanmukta is called an arhat.