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Chapter 18: Conclusion
250 analyzing the worldly phenomenon. It is now a scientific truth that the world consists of infinite atomic particles pervading everywhere. The physical bodies as well as everything else in the world are composed of such particles. The worldly souls adopt the particles at the time of formation of the bodies, and leave them at the time of death. In addition to this, they also adopt such, particles in the form of Karma. The process of adopting and leaving has thus been going on continuously in each lifetime. During the infinite time that has elapsed, every particle in the world must have been adopted by each soul several times. As such, the entire world consists of the particles that have been adopted and released. Is that situation not comparable to used or left over food?
To the enlightened, the entire universe therefore seems like used rejected food and is considered worthless. It is similar to the things that need to be disposed of like vomited food. To take an illustration from routine life, if left over or vomited food is strewn over the dining table, no one would like to occupy that place. To the enlightened beings, every thing in the universe is comparable to that situation. On this very account, when Rathnemi, the brother of Lord Neminäth, displayed his attachment for Räjul, she brought him back to detachment by comparing his attachment to vomited food.
As an alternative, the stanza states that an enlightened person looks at everything in the world as a dream. Quite a few fascinating objects or situations may appear in a dream and the dreamer may even enjoy the same. But dreams are not true, as they disappear at the instant of awaking. As the dreaming person wakes up, he realizes that he was simply availing of the dream, and the fanciful situations presented had no reality. Similarly, all the worldly situations look ephemeral and unrealistic to enlightened beings.
The identification and attachment that the worldly soul feels with the body and other environments is thus illusory, and arises out of its ignorance and unawareness of the self. The
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