I am The Soul Part 01

SR No.: 006790
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tarulatabai Mahasati
Publisher: Shri Gujarati Shwetambar Sthanakwasi Jain Association
Total Pages: 468
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 165

I am the Soul
107
Whether friend or foe, the same feeling towards either. The animosity of the foe does not make this person to express enmity nor does the affection of the friend get him to express attachment. One who does not differentiate between friend or foe. Whether the other jiva presents itself as a friend or foe, in either circumstances his own feelings do not change at all. In fact, to him all jivas are alike. The equanimity of such a great person is such that to him there is neither a friend nor a foe, neither anybody his own nor anybody alien.
Not only that, whether somebody honours or praises him or whether somebody dishonours or condemns him, to him those are not more than mere inanimate words. As such, sweet words do not charm him nor do the bitter ones daunt him.
For a person whose state of self-realisation has progressed beyond this stage, there remains no difference between life and death. Neither does he celebrate birth nor does he dread death. For death only affects the body, not the Soul. Why would one, who holds a strong conviction - 'I am the Soul, I am ageless, deathless, birthless' fear death at all? Say, how can physical death disturb a person who has gone beyond the virtual death of every moment?
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For one who has become detached from the worldly feelings, what allure would life hold? He is forever immersed in the Soul. To him life and death are the same.
And now Srimadji indicates the best type of equanimity in the last line - that for a person with equipoise it does not matter whether he lives in this world with the body or in a state of liberation without the body! What a great condition has been described here! The supreme desire to attain Moksa drives a jiva on to make the best effort; and yet whether it is the state of Moksa or the state of embodiment, it does not matter anymore. What does this indicate? It indicates that the jiva has experienced here and now, a sample of the supreme bliss, that would be available to him in the state of liberation, and is so taken up with it that the