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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
430
Atman and Moksa
that it causes the movement of the body."! S. Dasgupta thus interprets the activity of the soul and states that the soul supplies the necessary energy for the activities which are actually carried out by the mind and the body through the sense and motor organs. The soul is not the immediate or direct agent of the actions but it is the proximate agent that supplies the necessary energy for the various activities; and the activities will be impossible if the energy is not supplied. Hence, though proximate, the soul is the agent. A. B. Keith says that motion is not the only form of action and hence he interprets the activity of the soul in terms of superintendence. He says "The Soul, then, is essentially active, for unlike the Vais'esika school, the Mīmān:sā does not, according to Kumārila, deem that motion is the only form of action, and it is through its superintending activity that the motions of the body are achieved. We must therefore, conceive the Soul engaged from the time immemorial in the work of directing a body...."
The soul is thus, the ultimate enjoyer and agent of the actions. It acts and enjoys various experiences with the help of the mind; the sense organs act as the instruments. The soul enjoys through the sense organs the external objects of the world. The sense organs and the mind have the body as their abode, and all of them serve as instruments to the soul. Due to the good and evil deeds the soul acquires * 1 Dasgupta S.: A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 400.
2 Keith A. B. : The Karma-Mimā msa, p. 66.
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