Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 216

202 Harmless Souls
material karman.59 The karma-tainted jīva supports prāṇā again and again (i.e. it is reborn) - prāṇā which, by their very nature as active principles, involve the jiva in further himsā,60 until it gives up the attitude of possession, of 'mine', towards external objects, especially the body.61 This, according to the Tattvadīpikā on 2:58, breaks the sequence and, having conquered the senses through this renunciation of possession, the person meditating on the pure self achieves samvara. 62 In other words, there is no rebirth, for the pure soul cannot, by definition, be embodied by material prāṇā (themselves the effect and further cause of karman); for while the conjunction with material prāṇā is the cause of the soul's vyavahāra state,63 from the niścaya view the soul is quite separate from material prāṇā. As the Tattvadīpikā puts it, the cessation of this series of material karman
accrues to him who has conquered all strange substances such as the senses, like a crystal gem withdrawn from the influence (anuvṛtti) of any support, and who abides in the perfect (kevala) and motionless self, completely pure and consisting merely of manifestation of consciousness.64
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So rather than physical tapas, it is meditation on the true nature of the self- that it is pure consciousness - which is instrumental in bringing the cycle of material prāṇā and
59 For a full description of the mechanism of this, see Pravac. and TD 2:56-57.
60
See TD on 2:57.
61 See Pravac. 2:58.
62 See Pravac. 2:59, quoted above.
63
vyavahārajīvatvahetavaḥ - TD on Pravac. 2:59.
64 Faddegon's trans. [Kundakunda (3)] p.123, slightly altered, of TD on 2:59: sa (tu) samastendriyādi paradravyānuvijayino bhūtvā samastopāśrayānuvṛttivyāvṛttasya sphaṭikamaṇer ivātyantaviśuddham upayogamatram ātmānam suniścalam kevalam adhivasataḥ syät Note once again the way in which the jewel simile is employed: the material world colours the jiva by reflection, there is no real contact.