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Sixth Fundamental-Path and Means of Liberation
You are pure, enlightened, consciousness incarnate, selfradiant, and abode of bliss. What else can be said? If you rightly contemplate, you would realize it. (117)
Explanation & Discussion: The Guru points out that it is hard to describe the state of liberation. But everything can be identified by its attributes. He therefore specifies five attributes of the liberated soul, viz. purity, enlightenment, consciousness, self-illumination, and blissfulness. Let us consider them one by one.
Purity: The soul is inherently pure. It seems stained by the impact of Karma; but that is only superficial, not real. A pure crystal assumes the color of the object lying within its proximity but does not adopt that color. Similarly the worldly soul assumes the phenomena of being a male or female, or having a heavenly, human, or animal embodiment, etc. by virtue of its Karma. But they merely represent temporary states, which are termed as Paryäy. All the worldly states are ever-changing Paryäys. None of them can alter the inherent purity of soul. That purity remains latent in the worldly state and becomes manifest in the liberated state.
Enlightenment: Infinite knowledge is a property of soul. It has the inherent capability to know everything. For that purpose it does not need to go to the objects that are to be known. Those objects are reflected in its knowing capability. It also does not need any means for exercising its capability. Since that capability remains obscured by the knowledge-obscuring Karma, the soul conceives of itself as devoid of knowledge and tries to gain it with the help of sense organs. It tries to know a surface by the sense of touch, taste by the tongue, odor by the nose, sight by the eyes, and sound by the ears. That happens because
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