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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
76
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
For Private And Personal
Atman and Mokṣa
by peace. The bonds of his finitude being broken, his personality becomes one with the infinite and enjoys perfection. The Self, in its nature, is peaceful, tranquil, perfect, eternal, unchanging, shining and blissful. The individual does not experience there a kind of void or nothingness. But it is a state of eternal bliss and contentment. It is a state of perfection and fullness. The bliss that is experienced in this state is of the highest magnitude. It is beyond imagination and comprehension. Only those who actually experience it, know it. This is the state of the liberated soul. The liberated soul is freed from all kinds of fetters of ignorance. Ignorance is completely annexed and there is only the unflickering light of the immortal Self. Ignorance is finite and can be brought to an end by the right knowledge of the Self. It is said in the sve'tas'vatara Upaniṣad "...ignorance is a thing perishable, but knowledge is a thing immortal." Ignorance is terminated with the rise of self-knowledge. The liberated soul not only overcomes all distinctions and differences, not only assumes unity with all, but enjoys the highest bliss of the Atman. The highest bliss is incommensurate with any of the material happiness. It is a state of desirelessness and still of infinite joy. The Bliss of the Brahman is described in the following passage- "One hundred times that human bliss is one measure of the bliss of human Gandharvas and of the great sages,..one hundred times that bliss of human Gandharvas is one measure of the bliss of divine Gandharvas and
1 S'vět. Up. 5.1.