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 558

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
526
Atman and Mokşa
one."! Rāmānuja regards that the differences are real but they last only as long as their inner unity is not realised. The exclusive differences last as long as the souls are under the spell of Nescience (Avidyā); the different souls experience their inner substantial unity when the avidyā is overcome. Then the soul realises its bhedābheda (differences in unity) relation with the is'vara. Rāmānuja further says "The difference of the soul -- presenting itself as the soul of a god, a man etc., from the highest Self is not due to its essential nature, but rests on the basis of Nescience in the form of work; when through meditation on Brahman this basis is destroyed, the difference due to it comes to an end, and the soul no longer differs from the highest Self.”'2
Every jiva is an agent (kartā) of actions and reaps the rewards of them in its next life. Every jiva is a separate being, and therefore, experiences its pains and pleasures separately. Unlike Samkara, Ramānuja holds that the individual soul is the doer of actions (af) and the enjoyer (7717) of their consequences. Rāmānuja argues that if the Self were not an agent, and all activity belonged to the Prakrti in a common possession of all souls, or else to none of the souls; for, as such the Self is held to be omnipresent, they are all of them in equal proximity to all parts of the Pradhāna. For the same reason it could not be maintained that the distribution of
1 Rāmānuja - Com. on Vedānta Sútras. Tr. Thibaut, 2.3.50, p. 566.
2 Ibid. 1.1.1, p. 101,
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