________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Vedanta (S'amkara)
·
the latter is differentiated from the Thing-in-itself' or the material substratum. They are unknowable according to Kant as the categories of understanding do not apply to them and they fail to grasp their nature.
465
The Self is thus logically prior to all things of the world. It is abstract and devoid of qualities. It is implied in existence and in every act of awareness and consciousness. It does not possess any objectivity and hence, it cannot be known in the objective way. It cannot be known as an object of our knowledge; it is known peculiarly only as our knowing subject or as the 'I' principle. As it is devoid of objective nature and objective characteristics it can never be known by perception; similarly it cannot be known by our mental concepts for they are constructed on the grounds of relativity and distinctions. The Brahman or the Soul transcends all relativity and distinctions and hence, the mind also is unable to know it in its conceptual forms.
For Private And Personal
The self is to be experienced only directly or immediately without the intervention of any other medium of senses, words, manas and intellect. It reveals directly to the knower. It is to be seen face to face. Just as a candle is not necessary to perceive the sun as the sun itself is self-shining, so also the soul being self-illuminating, directly reveals itself to the perceiver or knower without any intermediary. S'amkara saysThe individual soul is therefore called 'That whose true nature is non-manifest' merely on account of the absence of discriminative Ā 30