Page Text
________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Mokgá
becoming one with the Brahman but it is rediscovering our nature lost due to our forgetting of it out of nescience. The Brahman and its knowledge are already there; it is only a self-finding of one's own Self. It is analogous to come to the waking state from one that of dream; when a dreamer opens his eyes and looks at the world he is completely free from the deceptive appearances with which he is confronted in his dreams. He becomes quite aware of the total unreality of the objects and experiences that he experienced while in deram. It is coming to a normal consciousness from that of an illusion or delusion. The experience of liberation is one of self-consciousness in which one is absolutely certain of his own reality. It is like coming to the consciousness of the rope which was formerly seen to be a snake. Thus, the consciousness of the soul is becoming conscious or aware of one's real and essential nature by being free from the former illusive vision which had caused false sufferings in life. This experience is acquired when one realizes that his innermost self is not the perishable body, nor the sense organs, nor the mind, nor the buddhi but it is something behind and beyond them, which is subtle, intelligent, unchangeable, pure (uncontaminated), the inner controller, revealer (prakās'akaḥ), transparent, and eternal.1 The knowledge of the Brahman dispels the darkness of ignorance and restores to the soul its original purity, native infinity, and blissful nature which was lost due to ignorance. S'amkara describes
1 S'amkara : Aparoksānubhūtiḥ, S'lokas, 16–23.
For Private And Personal
| 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 |