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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
496
Ātamn and Moksa
result of the past Karma which has already begun to have its fruition ( 20 ), and it cannot be brought to an abrupt end by the knowledge of the Brahman. It completes its round and so the present body continues until the Karma that has already begun fruition, gets exhausted. Saṁkara says "Origination of knowledge, we reply, cannot take place without dependence on an aggregate of works whose effects have already begun to operate, and when this dependence has once been entered into we must as in the case of the potter's wheel — wait until the motion of that which once has begun to move comes to an end, there being nothing to obstruct in the interim.” The knowledge of our self being essentially non-active destroys all works by means of refuting wrong knowledge; but wrong knowledge comparable to the appearance of a double moon - lasts for some time, even after it has been refuted, owing to the impression it has made.”! Thus even after attaining the knowledge of the Brahman and transcending all distinctions of the world by knowing it to be illusory, an individual may continue to have his bodily existence in the world; such a liberated person is known as the (Hitam). Sankara admits the possibility of a Jivanmukta who has realised in the fullest degree the nature of the Self by entering into communion with it, and has transcended the realm of relativity and so detached himself completely from the effects of the adjuncts of the world upon
1 S'amkara (Com.) on Vedanta Sūtras. Tr. Thibaut, 4•1•15. Vol. II, p. 358.
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