________________
288
Jaina Philosophy and Religion
solutely separated or dissociated from all the material karmic particles, it is called 'a liberated soul'. And liberation of this kind is called perfect or ultimate liberation. Delusion, or a trio of attachment, aversion and delusion, or a gang of desire, anger, pride, deceitfulness and greed has the chief and prime power over all the karmas. They constitute the pivot on which moves the wheel of transmigration. They are chief amongst all defects. They control and rule over the entire karmic system. Once one frees oneself from them, one automatically frees oneself from the entire karmic cycle. Therefore, it is said that Ultimate Liberation is nothing but liberation from passions. In other words, Ultimate Liberation consists only in one's being free from passions. Kasāyamuktiḥ kila muktir eva.
Human being is superior to all other beings. He is endowed with the power of discretion and intelligence. When he makes the right use of his power of intelligence and treads the path of righteousness and good conduct, the bitterness of the forces of karmic bondages decreases and their sweetness increases. And when he makes great spiritual efforts and manifests his special spiritual power, then the karmic material particles stop sticking to his soul and soiling it and at the same time the already stuck karmic material particles fall off from it. This condition of the soul is considered to be its advancement towards the final goal of liberation.
The mundane living being can never be without activity. It does have at least mental activity. So it binds karmas on account of some activity. But one who follows the noble path of righteouness and rectitude should not be afraid of the karmic bondage effected by activity. It is because during its spiritually progressive living whatever karmas are bound will never give bitter fruits, during its auspicious living chiefly auspicious karmas are accumulated, and along with accumulation of auspicious karmas there goes on the continuous process of spiritually beneficial dissociation of the bound karmas. This course of life causes happiness and becomes very useful in the attainment of spiritual good.
Man should keep his intellect pure, he should not swerve from the path of spiritual welfare, and he should remain engaged in good activities. It is enough for him, if he bears this in mind. All the remedies of all miseries and misery-causing karmas are covered in it.
Dust particles move towards and enter the room or any other place on account of the wind blowing in that direction, and stick to the unctuous thing that is there. Similarly, karmic material particles move towards and fall on the soul on account of the blowing wind in the form of threefold
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org