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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Mokṣa
intellection and volition in common with the finite souls but its powers are highly magnified as compared with those of the souls. The Vedas speak of the omnipresent and all-pervading spirit which dwells in all things and remains imperishable in them. It is the spirit (manas) that goes to Yama, to earth and heaven, to the billowy mountains and all those things which live and move, and is all that is and is to be. It is thus the eternal spirit that pervades the whole universe.'
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The Satapatha Brāhmana (शतपथ ब्राह्मण ) holds that every man has three births. He receives first birth from his parents; the second, at the time of the wearing of the sacred thread; and the third, after death. The third birth to which the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa refers here occurs after the death of the body. It has to be understood in a special context of a ṚgVedic verse in which the Agni (fire) is asked to temper the 'Unborn Spirit' and not consume it entirely so that it gets a fresh birth. The Ṛg Veda speaks elsewhere of the individual who at cremation leaves behind on earth all that is evil and imperfect and proceeds by those paths by which his fathers travelled. The mention of the third birth of the individual after death clearly shows that the Vedic thinkers believed in the survival of some non-physical or immaterial element after the destruction of the
1 Griffith R. T. H. (Tr.): The Hymns of the ṚgVeda. Rg Veda-X, 58 (whole). Tr. Vol. II. pp. 461, 462.
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2 RgVeda-XI, 2.1-1.
3 Griffith R. T. H.(Ti.): RgVeda-X, 14.8. Tr. Vol. II, p. 399.
| SR No. | 020053 |
| Book Title | tman_and_moksa |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | G N Joshi |
| Publisher | Gujarat University |
| Publication Year | 1965 |
| Total Pages | 901 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 12 MB |