tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
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

Page 520

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
488
Ātman and Moksa
as it were when the limiting adjuncts with which it is in contact, such as a finger, for instance, are straight or bent, but does not really become so; and just as the ether, although imagined to move as it were when jars are being moved, does not really move; and as the sun does not tremble, although its image trembles when you shake the cup filled with water in which the sun's light is reflected; thus, the Lord also is not affected by pain, although pain be felt by that part of him which is called the individual soul, is presented by Nescience, and limited by the buddhi and other adjuncts."! The pain and pleasure have reality and existence only for the individual soul and not for the Brahman which is the real nature of the jivātmā.
Moksa is thus, already there for ever. Its absence is felt only due to the obscuration of the real knowledge of the Self by Máyā or Avidyā. Avidyā is like darkness which disappears with the occurrence of light. Light and darkness cannot co-exist. Similarly S'aṁkara says-“And in the state of final release also, the self, having dispelled the darkness of ignorance by the light of knowledge, and having reached the state of absolute isolation and rest, enjoys full ease."2 The knowledge of the self or the Brahman itself means illumination since the self is of the nature of self-illumination (F9°®TT). It eternally
1 S'ainkara (Com.) on Vedānta Sūtras. Tr. Thibaut, 2.3.46, Vol. II, pp. 64-65.
3 Ibid. 2.3.40, Vol. II, p. 55.
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