From IIM Ahmedabad To Happiness

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

Page 81

KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY
Hence, all kinds of impressions, or states of consciousness lie latent in the soul, and only need removal of the causes which prevent their coming into manifestation to emerge from the subconscious state. The existence of a capacity to know is not anything foreign to the soul, or to be acquired from without, but its very nature.
The nature of the soul being pure intelligence, the differences in the degree of its manifestation in different individuals must be due to the influence of some outside force, or agent, whose association or union with the soul has the effect of depriving it of its pure clarity of knowledge. Unconscious matter, known as knowledge-obstructing karmas, is just such an agent. It follows from here that the removal of the veil of this matter, by destroying or checking the energy of knowledge-obstructing karmas, which interfere with the knowing capacity of the soul, is the real means of increase of knowledge. Our personal likes and dislikes, as well
wrong beliefs and passions and emotions are the causes which interfere with the dawn of knowledge. They make the intellect cloudy, producing the mental fog that is highly inimical to the clarity of conscious thought. Another cause of obstruction is the interest in the physical concerns of life which narrows down the zone of knowledge to what is regarded as the immediately useful for the requirements of the physical body. Attention here acts as a gate-keeper, who admits only the desirable, thus, shutting the door against all ideas other than those presenting themselves in response to the invitation of the desiring manas (lower mind, the seat of desires). We can therefore conclude that the functioning of the consciousness is obstructed by certain kinds of energies springing into being from personal likes, dislikes, interests, passions, emotions and desires.
Now we are in a position to understand that true knowledge is
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