From IIM Ahmedabad To Happiness

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

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FROM IIM-AHMEDABAD TO HAPPINESS
Belief in the ascertainment of things or substances – tattvas – in their true character is right faith. These substances are seven in number: the soul, the non-living, influx of karmic matter into the soul, bondage, cessation of influx, destruction of existing bonds, and, finally, liberation. The soul is characterized by consciousness, and the most important substance in our consideration. Every soul is endowed by nature with a capacity for infinite knowledge and bliss. However, swayed by passions, we allow different types of karmic matter to “tie down' our soul. If the soul were an insentient principle, like a balloon, it could never free itself from the captivity, but being an active, conscious being, it has the power, hence the choice, to cut the cords with which it is tied down. Hence, its bondage continues just as long as it does not
xert itself to break its bonds. It must, however, be remembered that the power of exertion depends on self-knowledge which arises only when the bondage itself is somewhat loosened. Man alone of all creatures is gifted with the power to free himself from bondage through exertion. That is why, the Scriptures emphasize on the importance and privilege of human birth. Right faith opens the outlook of life to embrace the highest good.
Our soul is the nature of pure intelligence, the substance which knows and feels. The relation between thought and belief is that the latter constitutes a mould for fixing the former's form. It is for this reason that the soul speedily becomes what it actually believes itself to be. If it replaces its sense of identity with the body with one of its Supreme nature, it will actually acquire that status as soon as the right kind of belief becomes fully established in its consciousness. The main thing, then, is to acquire the belief in one's own identity. One must believe that the soul is quite independent of the body, and is composed of a substance which completely differs from the physical organism which it inhabits. But to acquire this belief is not an easy matter by any means. In
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