Beyond Doubt

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

Page 77

the Atman. This vedic verse elucidates that the body and the soul are two different identities. Under these circumstances, how can one understand what the truth is? Should one consider the soul and the body identical or different. Oh. Vayubhuti, isn't this your doubt and the vedic verse the base for it?"
Vayubhuti said "Oh Lord, You are indeed great for you know everything. You know the doubt which nobody could know. Please enlighten me by clearing this doubt. I have come to you and I am confident that you will not disappoint me".
Lord Mahavira said, "Oh Vayubhuti Gautama, the verse does not signify the dissolution of the soul and the body, but it means that the relative object of knowledge constituted in the soul comes into existence and also undergoes destruction. We see an object and get the knowledge of it and when we see another object, the knowledge of the former object goes along with the object itself. But the soul never dissolves with anything, because only in the presence of consciousness we are able to grasp the knowledge of other objects. On death, the body dissolves into the 'pancha mahabhutas' five elements but not the atman. The atman takes another body form to experience the fruit of the meritorious and evil karmas. That is why it is said.
"3751 fat ERAI" i.e. the Atman is different and the body is different. They are of all together different existence. The body is compared to a palace in which the atman abides. The king is not identical with the palace in which he lives. It is a known fact that the king and the palace are different entities. Similarly the soul abiding in the body is not the body itself. It is in fact different from the body.
The difference between a corpse and the body of a living being is that, in a corpse, the body is intact but is devoid of consciousness. Logically this also goes to prove the difference between the body and the soul. If the root words like Atman and