JIVAN-MUKTA in Sikhism the ideal and aim or objective of man’s spiritual life. The term is derived from jivan-mukti (jivan=life; mukti=release, liberation, emancipation freedom from bondage), and means one who has attained liberation from human bondage or one who has attained to the highest spiritual state of being in tune with the Ultimate while still living. The idea of mukti is encountered, with some conceptual variations, in practically all religious faiths, e.g. moksa in Hinduism, nirvana in Buddhism, Nijat in Islam and salvation in Christianity. The belief underlying the concept of mukti is, that the soul, a particle of the Supreme Soul, is, while embedded in the physical frame, in a state of viyog or separation and longs for sanyog or reunion with its source, which for it is the sup