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85
Ätmasiddhi
Explanation & Discussion:
The pupil now elaborates his argument against the existence of the soul. In routine life existence denotes tangibility. An object comes to our knowledge by virtue of its tangibility. In the spiritual discussion, a pot and cloth are taken as representatives of tangible objects. The pupil makes use of that metaphor and argues that if the soul exists, we should be able to notice it like a pot or cloth.
This argument is based on visibility. Eye is an organ with which we can see everything that comes within eyesight, and we believe what we see. We are so accustomed to the concept of visibility that we hesitate to believe in what is not visible to us. The pupil intends to pinpoint that when we can see even far off things, how come we do not see the soul, which is so close to us? He forgets that the eye, which is capable of seeing distant objects, is not able to see those which are very close. For instance, it fails to see the ointment applied within the eye.
Our concept of visibility hardly permits us to think of an invisible object like soul. It would be interesting to cite one anecdote. Once a group of science students went to a learned man and asked him to provide proof of the soul. Their arguments were similar to those raised here by the pupil. The man told that the soul being formless and shapeless, it is invisible and intangible. As such it cannot be comprehended by sense organs. There are quite a few things that are beyond the capability of senses. One has therefore to keep faith in the words of the enlightened in such respects.
The students were not satisfied with the explanation and insisted upon some concrete proof. The man then said that he would show the soul to the most intelligent among them. The students brought forward one of them and said that he had the sharpest intellect. Thereupon, the man asked that student to first show his intellect and thereafter he would show the soul. The student was exasperated by that argument, and said that intelligence being intangible, it cannot be physically brought
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