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 74

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
42
Atman and Moksa
penance and knowledge. As we do not obtain butter directly from the cream or oil directly from the sesame seed without crushing it, so also our Self, though it is always with us, and is latent in us, is not easily known. The Self has no measurable magnitude, because it is immaterial and subtle. The Mundaka Upanișad describes the Self as “Great and lustrous is that inconceivable being, and yet it is subtler than the subtle. It is farther than any far-off end, and yet quite near to us, being shut up in the cave of our heart." ' In another passage occuring in the Kasha Upanisad the Self again is described as "Smaller than the small, greater than the great, and is hidden in the heart of the creature. Similarly in the same Upanişad the Self is described "the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, is great and omnipresent."2 Thus it can be seen from such numerous illustrations that the Self is subtle, bodiless, incorporeal, immutable, illimitable, conscious, invisible and omnipresent or all-pervasive. The Upanisadic thinkers hold not only that the Self is present in all the beings and things of the world but they also think that the Self is both the material and efficient cause of the universe. The Bșh. Upanişad says—"As the spider comes out with its thread, or as small sparks come forth from fire, thus do all senses, all worlds, all Devas, all beings coine forth from that Self."3 Thus
Mundaka Up. 3.1.7. 2 Katha Up. 1.2.20.22. 3 Bịh. Up. 2.1.20.
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