________________
358
I am the Soul with the tongue. Unless it is kept on the tongue, its taste cannot be understood.. So taste can be known through the tongue. And touch, weight, heat, cold etc., cannot be experienced through any other senses. Only when these substances come into contact with the skin, can they be felt. There is wind, but it cannot be seen or heard. Only when it touches our body do we realise whether it is hot air or a cool breeze blowing.
Thus the substances available in the world can be known with the senses. Many things are understood with the mind and we learn all about the world with the help of these powers. But there is no form of atma that is visible. Atma cannot be heard, it does not have a smell, it is not possible to place it on the tongue and taste it and neither can it be understood through touch. In the same way, whatever thinking we may do with this mind, atma does not come in the clutches of the mind. Thus atma is not liable to be experienced either through the senses or through the mind. Atma has not been identified with any means until now. Therefore it seems as if there is no separate existence of a substance by name atma. And hence,
at yu 31942 TET, Azmi 7 viata 64 .....84 But the Shishya is respectful. He remains within the say of his Gurudev. Therefore, he again asks the Gurudev, “I have never found atma anywhere, but you say “atma exists', so then whom do I take as atma? This is another doubt in my mind :
अथवा देह ज आतमा, अथवा इंद्रीय प्राण,
frapezne a 41467, fe is an .....8 "Gurudev! What is the harm if we believe this body itself to be atma? Where is the need to believe any atma that is separate from the body? For if a jiva is living, it is with this body. Whatever activities and feelings of joy or sorrow occur, they are experienced as happening in the body. Talking, walking, roaming, eating, drinking and all such activities are done by the body itself.' The
Jain Educationa International
For Personal and Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org