Tejobindu Upanishad of Krishna-yajurveda, Chapter IV

The Kumāra asked the great Lord: "Please explain to me the nature of Jīvanmukti (embodied salvation) and videhamu.kti (disembodied salvation)." To which the great Śiva replied: "I am Cidātmā. I am Para-Ātmā. I am the Nirguṇa, greater than the great. One who will simply stay in Ātmā is called a Jivanmukta. He who realises: 'I am beyond the three bodies, I am the pure consciousness and I am Brahman,' is said to be a Jivanmukta. He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realises: 'I am of the nature of the blissful and of the supreme bliss, and I have neither body nor any other thing except the certitude "I am Brahman" only'. He is said to be a Jivanmukta who has not at all got the 'I' in myself, but who stays in Cinmātra (absolute consciousness) alone, whose interior is consciousness alone, who is only of the nature of Cinmātra, whose Ātma is of the nature of the all-full, who has Ātmā left over in all, who is devoted to bliss, who is undifferentiated, who is all-full of the nature of consciousness, whose Ātmā is of the nature of pure consciousness, who has given up all affinities (for objects), who has unconditioned bliss, whose Ātmā is tranquil, who has got no other thought (than Itself), and who is devoid of the thought of the existence of anything. He is said to be a Jivanmukta who realises: I have no citta, no buddhi, no ahaṅkāra, no sense, no body at any time, no prāṇas, no Māyā, no passion and no anger, I am the great, I have nothing of these objects or of the world, and I have no sin, no characteristics, no eye, no manas, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no hand, no waking, no dreaming, or causal state in the least or the fourth state.' He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realises: 'All this is not mine, I have no time, no space, no object, no thought, no snāna (bathing), no sandhyās (junction-period ceremonies), no deity, no place, no sacred places, no worship, no spiritual wisdom, no seat, no relative, no birth, no speech, no wealth, no virtue, no vice, no duty, no auspiciousness, no Jīva, not even the three worlds; no salvation, no duality, no Vedas, no mandatory rules, no proximity, no distance, no knowledge, no secrecy, no Guru, no disciple, no diminution, no excess, no Brahma, no Viṣṇu, no Rudra, no moon, no earth, no water, no vāyu, no ākāś, no agni, no clan, no lakṣya (object aimed at), no mundane existence, no meditator, no object of meditation, no manas, no cold, no heat, no thirst, no hunger, no friend, no foe, no illusion, no victory, no past, present, or future, no quarters, nothing to be said or heard in the least, nothing to be gone (or attained) to, nothing to be contemplated, enjoyed or remembered, no enjoyment, no desire, no yoga, no absorption, no garrulity, no quietude, no bondage, no love, no joy, no instant joy, no hugeness, no smallness, neither length nor shortness, neither increase nor decrease, neither adhyāropa (illusory attribution) nor apavāda (withdrawal of that conception) no oneness, no manyness, no blindness, no dullness, no skill, no flesh, no blood, no lymph, no skin, no marrow, no bone, no skin, none of the seven dhātus, no whiteness, no redness, no blueness, no heat, no gain, neither importance nor non-importance, no delusion, no perseverance, no mystery, no race, nothing to be abandoned or received, nothing to be laughed at, no policy, no religious vow, no fault, no bewailments, no happiness, neither knower nor knowledge nor the knowable, no Self, nothing belonging to you or to me, neither you nor I, and neither old age nor youth nor manhood; but I am certainly Brahman. "I am certainly Brahman. I am Chit, I am Chit "' He is said to be a Jivanmukta who cognizes: I am Brahman alone, I am Chit alone, I am the supreme.' No doubt need be entertained about this; 'I am Haṃsa itself, I remain of my own will, I can see myself through myself, I reign happy in the kingdom of Ātmā and enjoy in myself the bliss of my own Ātmā.' He is a Jivanmukta who is himself, the foremost and the one undaunted person who is himself the lord and rests in his own Self.

"He is a Videhamukta who has become Brahman, whose Ātma has attained quiescence, who is of the nature of Brāhmic bliss, who is happy, who is of a pure nature, and who is a great mouni (observer of silence). He is a Videhamukta who remains in Cinmātra alone without (even) thinking thus: 'I am all Ātmā, the Ātmā that is equal (or the same) in all, the pure, without one, the non-dual, the all, the self only, the birth-less and the deathless—I am myself the undecaying Ātmā that is the object aimed at, the sporting, the silent, the blissful, the beloved and the bondless salvation—I am Brahman alone—I am Chit alone.' He is a Videhamukta who having abandoned the thought: 'I alone am the Brahman' is filled with bliss. He is a Videhamukta who having given up the certainty of the existence or non-existence of all objects is pure Cidānanda (the consciousness-bliss), who having abandoned (the thought): 'I am Brahman' (or) 'I am not Brahman' does not mingle his Ātmā with anything, anywhere or at any time, who is ever silent with the silence of Satya, who does nothing, who has gone beyond guṇas, whose Ātmā has become the All, the great, and the purifier of the elements, who does not cognize the change of time, matter, place, himself or other differences, who does not see (the difference of) 'I,' 'thou,' 'this' or 'that,' who being of the nature of time is yet without it, whose Ātmā is void, subtle and universal, but yet without (them), whose Ātmā is divine and yet without Devas, whose Ātma is measurable and yet without measure, whose Ātmā is without inertness and within every one, whose Jima is devoid of any saṅkalpa, who thinks always: 'I am Cinmātra, I am simply Paramātman, I am only of the nature of spiritual wisdom, I am only of the nature of Sat, I am afraid of nothing in this world,' and who is without the conception of Devas, Vedas and sciences, 'All this is consciousness, etc.,' and regards all as void. He is a Videhamukta who has realised himself to be Caitanya alone, who is remaining at ease in the pleasure-garden of his own Ātmā, whose Ātmā is of an illimitable nature, who is without the conception of the small and the great, and who is the fourth of the fourth state and the supreme bliss. He is a Videhamukta whose Ātmā is nameless and formless, who is the great spiritual wisdom of the nature of bliss, and of the nature of the state beyond turya, who is neither auspicious nor inauspicious, who has yoga as his Ātmā, whose Ātmā is associated with yoga, who is free from bondage or freedom, without guṇa or non-guṇa, without space, time, etc., without the witnessable and the witness, without the small or the great, and without the cognition of the universe or even the cognition of the nature of Brahman, but who finds his spiritual effulgence in his own nature, who finds bliss in himself, whose bliss is beyond the scope of words and mind, and whose thought is beyond the beyond. He is said to be a Videhamukta who has gone beyond (or mastered quite) the modifications of citta, who illumines such modifications, and whose Ātmā is without any modifications at all. In that case, he is neither embodied nor disembodied. If such a thought is entertained (even), for a moment, then he is surrounded (in thought) by all. He is a Videhamukta whose external Ātmā invisible to others is the supreme bliss aiming at the highest vedānta, who drinks of the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who has the nectar of Brahman as medicine, who is devoted to the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who is immersed in that juice, who has the beneficent worship of the Brāhmic bliss, who is not satiated with the juice of the nectar of Brahman, who realises Brāhmic bliss, who cognizes the Śiva bliss in Brāhmic bliss, who has the effulgence of the essence of Brāhmic bliss, who has become one with it, who lives in the household of Brāhmic bliss, has mounted the car of Brāhmic bliss, who has an imponderable Chit being one with it, who is supporting (all), being full of it, who associates with me having it, who stays in Ātmā having that bliss and who thinks: 'All this is of the nature of Ātmā, there is nothing else beside Ātmā, all is Ātmā, I am Ātma, the great Ātmā, the supreme Ātmā, and Ātmā of the form of bliss.' He who thinks: 'My nature is full, I am the great Ātmā, I am the all-contented and the permanent Ātmā. I am the Ātmā pervading the heart of all, which is not stained by anything, but which has no Ātmā; I am the Ātmā whose nature is changeless, I am the quiescent Ātmā; and I am the many Ātmā.' He who does not think this is Jīvātmā and that is Paramātmā, whose Ātmā is of the nature of the emancipated and the non-emancipated, but without emancipation or bondage, whose Ātmā is of the nature of the dual and the non-dual one, but without duality and non-duality; whose Ātmā is of the nature of the All and the non-All, but without them; whose Ātmā is of the nature of the happiness arising from objects obtained and enjoyed, but without it; and who is devoid of any saṅkalpa—such a man is a Videhamukta. He whose Ātmā is partless, stainless, enlightened, Puruṣa, without bliss, etc., of the nature of nectar, of the nature of the three periods of time, but without them; whose Ātmā is entire and non-measurable, being subject to proof though without proof; whose Ātmā is the eternal and the witness, but without eternality and witness; whose Ātmā is of the nature of the secondless, who is the self-shining one without a second, whose Ātmā cannot be measured by vidyā and avidyā but without them; whose Ātmā is without conditionedness or unconditionedness, who is without this or the higher worlds, whose Ātmā is without the six things beginning with śama, who is without the qualifications of the aspirant after salvation, whose Ātmā, is without gross, subtle, causal, and the fourth bodies, and without the anna, prāṇa, manas, and vijñāna sheaths; whose Ātmā is of the nature of ānanda (bliss) sheath, but without five sheaths; whose Ātmā is of the nature of nirvikalpa, is devoid of saṅkalpa, without the characteristics of the visible or the audible, and of the nature of void, owing to unceasing samādhi, who is without beginning, middle, or end; whose Ātmā is devoid of the word Prajñāna, who is without the idea 'I am Brahman,' whose Ātmā is devoid (of the thought) of 'thou art', who is without the thought 'this is Ātmā', whose Ātmā is devoid of that which is described by Om, who is above the reach of any speech or the three states, and is the indestructible and the Cidātmā, whose Ātmā is not the one which can be known by Ātmā and whose Ātma has neither light nor darkness. Such a personage is a Videhamukta. Look only upon Ātmā; know It as your own. Enjoy your Ātmā yourself, and stay in peace. O six-faced one, be content in your own Ātma, be wandering in your own Ātmā, and be enjoying your own Ātmā. Then you will attain Videhamukti."