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Soul Science : Samayasāra by Jain Ācārya Kundakunda
knowledge. The phrase 'samaggo' (means 'full') has been used by Ācārya Kundakunda to emphasize this point that the soul is full of perception and knowledge.
One also finds a recipe to be free from Āsrava from this stanza. In the second half of the stanza, Ācārya says that Āsrava would vanish when one visualizes and keeps focus on the Self as a soul different from any impurity, stays in the Self, and remains absorbed in such Self.
Modern psychologists reveal that the repeated visualization of an outcome leads to the desired results, though they talk of worldly outcomes. In the first half of this Gāthā, the focus is on the eternal purity of the soul, and in the second half the Ācārya relates this to the purification of the state of the soul. In Gāthā 186, Ācārya Kundakunda would generalize this concept. There we would learn that we become what we visualize: if we visualize ourselves as eternally pure soul Dravya, then we attain purity in Paryāya (state), and if we visualize impurity then we get impurity. Question: Modern psychologists suggest to visualize the
intended outcome which does not exist now. In the same way, is Ācārya Kundakunda teaching us to visualize and focus over the purity of our soul which does not exist now?
Answer: The teaching of this stanza is deeper than that given
by the modern psychologists. Ācārya Kundakunda is teaching us to visualize and focus on the eternal truth. In the first half of the stanza, when he talks of the pure soul, then he is not focusing on the present, past, or future state (Paryāya) of the soul. He is considering the timeless dimension of the soul. He is focusing on the eternal separateness of the Self from all others. He is talking of the eternal purity (for more details regarding the eternal purity, it may be useful to refer to Gātha 6).
जीवणिबद्धा एदे अध्रुव अणिच्चा तहा असरणा य। दुक्खा दुक्खफल त्ति य णादूण णिवत्तदे तेहिं॥74॥
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