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Gandhi's Teachers : Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
literally rise into the perfect state of moksha where it enjoys infinite perception, infinite knowledge, infinite power, and eternal bliss. The Jain path makes the soul shed karmic matter gradually. When all karmic matter has been shed, the soul becomes free from the cycles of birth and death and moksha is achieved. Enlightened self-interest, freedom from emotions, freedom from dependence on others, being neither pleased nor annoyed with life, being without desires, being without worldly possessions, and voluntary rejection of the pleasures are to be sought to shed karmic matter. "There is no need to tell a man who sees for himself in this regard, but the wretched fool delighting in pleasure has no end to his miseries, but spins in a whirlpool of pain," points out a Jain saying 26 Consequently, the ideal is a passionless man, who relinquishes his ties of wealth, love, family, and friends to concentrate on the liberation of the soul.27
All living and non-living beings are in different stages of transmigration, depending upon the karmas. Only gradually the soul moves upward into higher stages and achieves liberation or moksha eventually. The struggle to free the soul from karmic matter is continuous and relentless. There is r help or mediation available of a Super Power or a guru and all a person can do is follow the path shown by the tirthankars. Initially, the person has to strive for self-restraint and selfdiscipline,28 until the flow of karmas is reversed and the soul begins to shed what it had accumulated of karmic matter. The individual also must practice austerities and not every person is ready for this. Karmas are gradually burned up in the glow of the austerities and practices like fasts, showing reverence to superiors, and rigid control of senses, speech, and intellect are some examples of the austerities. Confession of faults and good will towards one another are binding. After the stage of liberation is attained, the person is fully enlightened and can live temporarily in the world to serve humanity, no longer afflicted by the demands of good and evil. In the final stage of moksha, the soul transcends the world, having dropped behind all karmic matter and having attained the perfected
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