Book Title: Atmatatva Vichar Or Philosophy Of Soul
Author(s): Vijaylakshmansuri, Ghanshyam Joshi, Kirtivijay Gani
Publisher: Mohanlal D Mehta
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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
almost an identity with the soul; are detached from the soul proper, then Nirjara of Karma is said to have arisen.
Bandna means contamination of soul by the Karmic matters and unification of both. How Karmic matters contaminate the soul and other relative matters, we are going to deal at length in the forthcoming chapter; so we do not discuss it here.
"Moksha" means absolution of soul from all Karmic bondages. Mukti, Siddhi, Shiva Pada, Parama Pada, Panchamagati, Nirvanaall these words convey this very idea.
Almost nothing remains if Karma is eliminated from these nine entities and that is why we say that Jainism is completely interspersed with the doctrine of Karma.
Jainism draws beautifully a line of demarkation between meritorious acts and sins with the result that any devotee can accumulate meritorious acts having escaped commission of sins. Those who cannot discriminate between meritorious acts and sins or who believe sins as meritorious acts cannot be immuned from sinful acts. But the worldly trend is such that even a sinner proclaims himself as a man of righteousness and tries to put himself on par with the righteous persons. In this context we are reminded of a tale of the olden times.
THE NUMBER OF THE MERITORIOUS
Once upon a time, various questions were discussed in the assembly of King Shrenika, the King of Magadha country. In the meanwhile a question arose whether the sinners outnumber the meritorious persons or vice versa in that country. To this query all replied that the meritorious outnumber the sinners and the latter type of persons are hardly few. But Abhaykumar the chief minister was not satisfied with such reply. He said, “The cruel always outnumber the merciful, the liars are more than the truthful, the thieves are more than the honest persons, the passionate also are more than those with senses restrained in this world. Our country forms part of this world so here also non-righteous people must be more than the righteous ones. But none accepted his contention.
The chief minister Abhayakumar was a man of profound intelligence and he sensed well the situation, so he thought, it would
