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What is Kaivalya? Kaivalya means the state of aloneness, as opposed to the state of duality and attachment. It is not to be confused with the state of loneliness or living in seclusion. Kaivalya is a state of freedom from bondage, attachments, egoism, duality, attraction and aversion and the cycle of births and deaths. He who reaches this stage is called a Kevalin, the one who is always alone.
Kailvalya is attained by overcoming desires and attachment for the worldly pleasures and sense objects. It is not just a state of mental freedom, but freedom from the modifications of the mind itself. A person who achieve this state is called a Kevalin.
While in the body, a kevalin experiences aloneness in a state of self-absorption, in which the mind is silent, the desires are asleep, the duality of the knower and the known is absent.
A Kevalin achieves freedom by not shunning the dualities but remaining equal to them, by not choosing and discarding, but embracing life in its totality without choice, and preference.
In normal life we are subject to the dualities of life such as heat and cold, knower and the known, good and bad etc.
Kaivalya is the absence such dualities. It is absence of otherness, the sense of separation, the longing for life, the need to be and to have, mental dependence upon the world and others for approval, security, comfort and love.
The state of aloneness is achieved by self-purification and inner transformation, through the practice of yoga, austerities and self-control. The highest supreme Brahman is one and only. The true state of Brahman is aloneness.
A Kevalin reflects this state in his inner world. He remains detached and self-absorbed.
A Kevalin does not detest people or relationships. He remains detached from the world, even when he lives in it.
He may express love and compassion for others, but he is not guided by any motive in doing it. He expresses those higher emotions since he is established in supreme consciousness, and channels its supreme nature.
A Kevalin neither disturbs others nor feels disturbed by the actions of others. He remains silent amidst turbulence and stable in performing actions.
A Kevalin is not attached to even God or to the notion of God. He sees no distinction between Him and others. He sees himself in all and all in himself.
He becomes one with the universal consciousness, just as a rain drop falls into the ocean and becomes the ocean.
The state of Kaivalya begins with renunciation, a distaste for worldly life, attachment and relationships. A Kevalin continues on the path, practicing austerities, and disciplining his mind and body to prolong the silence of his mind. He approaches the exalted state of Kaivalya, when his mind becomes firmly attuned to continued silence and remains stable to all the noise and distractions of the world. In the final stages, a Kevalin finds peace not by having or choosing, but by being self-absorbed and seeking the company of none but his own Self.
The final state of Kaivalya is achieved only when you erase all the boundaries of separation between you and the rest of creation. It comes when you erase in your mind whatever that sets you apart.
When you erase all traces of egoism, desire and attachment, the delusion of duality and separation disappear and you enter the supreme state of Kaivalya. You become Brahman, the one and only, without qualities and distinctions.
The true state of Kaivalya comes only when a jivanmukta, a liberated person, leaves his body and departs from here to the immortal world of Brahman. In the world of Brahman he becomes Brahman.
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