First Steps to Jainism Part 1

Author(s): Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur

Page 39

The Seven Fundamentals 25
(iv) (v) (vi)
Tastelessness (Ras Parityag) Toleration of body pain (Kaya Klesha) Withdrawal from bodily pursuits (Sallinta)
(b) Pertaining to mind (Interior or Abhyantar)
(i) Repentance (Prayaschit) (ii) Humility (Vinaya) (iii) Service (Vaiya vrata) (iv) Study (Swadhyaya) (v) Meditation (Dhyan) (vi) Indifference (to body and its needs) (Vyutsarga)
By these processes karma bondage of the soul gets loosened and separated slowly in addition to the natural process of fruition of karma described earlier. As an example we can consider the damp or wet apparel which if thrown in a heap may take its own time to dry. However, if it is spread in sun or waved in the breeze it dries up much more quickly.
With the separation of matter from the soul its genuine inherent powers begin to manifest themselves and the soul shines in its true glory of perfection of knowledge, belief, power and bliss which is the last and the most important of the seven fundamentals.
(vii) Liberation or Moksh-the Seventh fundamental:
Complete separation of the soul from the matter (Karma pudgal) is liberation or salvation. This is the aim of every living being (soul) to obtain emancipation from perpetual slavery of foreign element i.e. matter. Once this is attained there is no suffering of any type, no birth, no death and no transmigration. As soon as a soul becomes completely separated from the matter, no further Karma can pollute it any more because the soul and the matter are entirely distinct substances-original pollution being due to beginningless contamination of soul by matter which attracted further defilement.
Though liberation is a very difficult and laborious process taking millenniums yet the path of liberation is not desolate or uninhabited. Millions and millions actually infinite number of souls