Page Text
________________
mund Man's relation to the Universe and non-spiritual. No man can progress until he learns to distinguish between himself and his body.
There are different kinds of souls. First, there are souls that identity themselves with the external that believe the body is the real self. Observe a man and see if he identifies his consciousness with his body. If he does belong to this class, and as long as he cling to this idea he will have to live in an embodied condition and he cannot be liberated. Incarnations, according to all the Oriental schools, are above all things to be avoided. Some people in this country have an erroneous idea that incarnation is a good thing. It is not good in itself, only as a means to an end..
Second, there are souls that deal with the subjective state. These know that the real self is different from body and different from mind, but they are not totally liberated from the body.
Third, Supreme Soul or Spirit. The process of growing out of the external to the Supreme condition is this: Give up the external and through the internal or subjective state reach the Supreme state. This contains a volume of meaning. The growth must be from within; all other sciences and outside influences are only helps and auxiliaries. To give up the external is no easy
thing.
There are four things difficult to obtain by the soul. First, the human condition. This took millions of years; Second, hearing the truth. Truth speakers are few because there is usually some personal end to gain. The majority of human beings are so engrossed with worldly aims that they have no time to listen to the truth; Third, Right faith in the truth. Many understand the truth who do not believe in it. They consider it reflects honor on them to doubt everything. Fourth, Practice of the truth. We must go step by step to this direction. There is only one way, and that is to do it, and it must be done by our own will. Nothing can compel us. The smallest seed of Spirit within us is always trying
223 mm
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 006901 |
| Book Title | Jaina Philosophy |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai |
| Publisher | World Jain Confederation |
| Publication Year | 2009 |
| Total Pages | 298 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 5 MB |