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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Mokaa
But with only the qualities of intellect and of Self, The lower (Self) appears of the size of the point of an awl. This living Self is to be known as a part of the hundredth part of the point of a hair --- subdivided a hundredfold. The soul is neither a male, nor a female, nor neuter. The soul being attached to what it experiences, gets new births according to previous deeds. The form and nature of the soul is determined from the qualities of the deeds of each soul.1
Thus the individual soul is mutable and finite being subjected to changing experiences and their results. It is subject to pleasure and pain and thus moves in the cycle of births and deaths.
An important parable is found also in the Chandogya Upanișad. Indra the king of Gods and Viroçana (Asura), without letting each other know, approached the same precept Prajāpati to seek knowledge of the Self to acquire superiority over each other. Prajāpati helped them to carry on the search of the self. First Indra was told that the reflection in a mirror or the person seen in the eye was the Self, then that one, who moves happy in dreams was told to be the Self, then a man fast asleep without dreams was told to be Self, then the body....a self. At last he was given to understand that none of these things could be the Self. The Self was entirely different and above all these things. The Self cannot be identified with any of these corporeal things. The Self cannot be a reflection in mirror or eye-ball, a
1 S'vet. Up. 5.7–12, Tr. Hume, p. 407.
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 |