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Chapter 16: Guru's Exposition about the Path and Means of Liberation
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the main attributes of the soul. "Sat" means everlasting. Whatever stays forever is therefore called "Sat". It denotes eternal existence. Jainism describes six basic substances which stay forever. Of these, we are concerned here with "Jiv" or soul. It always continues to exist and retains its inherent nature. This is true even for the worldly souls. Such souls appear to be contaminated by Karma, but that contamination is a superficial, temporary phenomenon. It is a Paryäy, a continually changing state, and does not affect the basic purity and inherent nature of the soul. If the nature of the soul could be contaminated, it could never get rid of it and hence can never be liberated. Since infinite souls have attained liberation by eradicating the bondage of Karma, it is clear that the inherent nature of the soul remains the same forever.
"Chaitanya" is the inherent property of the soul. It denotes consciousness, which indicates the knowing capability. By virtue of consciousness, the soul can exercise its vigor to know, and remains aware of itself as well as of others. Of all the six substances, only the soul has this property of knowing. That property stays with it forever, because no substance can be devoid of its inherent property. In the case of the worldly souls, this property remains obscured on account of the impact of Karma. As such, its capability to know infinitely is not manifested. Every living being, however, possesses some degree of knowing capability. This is true even of one-sensed beings. If a soul could lose this capability altogether, it would turn into a lifeless substance.
Thus, every soul is imbibed with the properties of everlastingness and consciousness; no soul can be devoid of that. The worldly soul is not conscious of its capabilities, because those capabilities are not manifest at present and stay latent. The soul seems to have forsaken the same and stays with the illusion of being devoid of those capabilities. Illusions are, however, not true. If a traveler, for instance, pursues a mirage in
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