2190~JEEVANMUKTI and 'The Three Hermits'!

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What is called
ETERNAL LIFE In Jesus Christ is known as JIVANMUKTI in Advaita and
NIRVANA in Buddhism.

Christianity believes that life on earth is lived only once, the spirit is eternal and is not destructible, this spirit has to go back to the Creator/God or away from God. The mortal life on this planet is limited as we know, but for the spirit it is an endless experience, with God it is Eternal Life or away from God it would be eternal death. The sinful man with his feeble attempts cannot reach God so God took on humanity and came as Christ to pay the penalty for the sins of man. This was done on the cross, Eternal God who cannot die took on death to defeat death and came back to life 3 days later. All who believe and follow the teachings of Christ need not taste eternal death but live eternal life with the Creator.

A JIVANMUKTA as in Advaita is a liberated sage. He is released even while living. He lives in the world but he is not of the world. He always revels in the eternal bliss of the Supreme Self (Paramatma). He has no identification with the body and senses. Hence he has no idea of enjoyment or enjoyer when he exhausts the residue of his Prarabdha karma. He has no idea of action or agent. He roams about happily without attachment and egoism, with a balanced mind and equal vision. His state is indescribable. He is Brahman Himself.

Ramakrishna Pramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi were two, among many such jeevanmuktas.

The two important traits to achieve such bliss/ salvation are -
(1) child like innocence, and
(2) enormous faith.

'Unless one becomes like a child he cannot enter the Kingdom of God'
The link between man & God is FAITH.

To attain these traits, ego (which comes of education, money, wealth, position. beauty etc.) that comes in the way, is to be shed. Hence we find in illiterates and the poor the ego usually is minimal. 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God'.
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Here is a short story 'The three hermits' by Leo Tolstoy, that narrates how  faith and purity of heart helps in attaining the jeevanmukti/ salvation:
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"A bishop and several pilgrims are travelling on a fishing boat from Archangel to the Solovétsk Monastery. During the voyage, the bishop engages the fishermen in conversation after overhearing them discuss a remote island nearby their course where three old hermits lived a spartan existence focused on seeking "salvation for their souls." Several of the fisherman claim to have seen them once.
The bishop then informs the captain that he wishes to visit the island. The captain attempts to dissuade him by saying "the old men are not worth your pains. I have heard say that they are foolish old fellows, who understand nothing, and never speak a word." But the bishop insists, and the Captain steers the ship toward the island and subsequently sets off in a rowboat to visit where he is met ashore by the three hermits.
The bishop informs the hermits that he has heard of them and of their seeking salvation. He inquires how they are seeking salvation and serving God, but the hermits say they do not know how, only that they pray, simply: "Three are ye, three are we, have mercy upon us." Subsequently, the bishop acknowledges that they have a little knowledge but are ignorant of the true meaning of the doctrine and how properly to pray. He tells them that he will teach them "not a way of my own, but the way in which God in the Holy Scriptures has commanded all men to pray to Him" and proceeds to explain the doctrines of the incarnation and the Trinity. He attempts to teach them the Lord's Prayer, the "Our Father", but the simple hermits blunder and cannot remember the words—which compels the bishop to repeat the lesson late into the night. After he became satisfied that they had memorised the prayer, the Bishop departed from the island leaving the hermits with the firm instruction to pray as he had taught them. The bishop then returned by the rowboat to the fisherman's vessel anchored offshore to continue the voyage.
While on board, the captain notices that their vessel is being followed—at first thinking a boat was behind them but soon realising that the three hermits had been running across the surface of the water "as though it were dry land." The hermits catch up to the vessel as the captain stops the boat, and inform the bishop:
"We have forgotten your teaching, servant of God. As long as we kept repeating it we remembered, but when we stopped saying it for a time, a word dropped out, and now it has all gone to pieces. We can remember nothing of it. Teach us again."

The bishop was humbled and replied to the hermits:
"Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. It is not for me to teach you. Pray for us sinners."
After which the hermits turned around and walked on water back to their island."
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Peace to all!