Book Title: Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
Author(s): Satish Sharma
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad

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Page 72
________________ 54 Gandhi's Teachers: Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta and its limitations, the dire fruits of actions and this self is introspected by mind. Then by and by one begins to realize the soul's inner glory of omniscience etc. If you just make a minute survey of the value of all things around you, you will find that there is nothing to excel in the glory of self. Thus we are led to conclude that God is a synonym of self. For this reason, I have a firm conviction that God is self and self is God: God has no abode outside self. (2) God is not the creator of the universe.25 All elements of nature such as atoms, space etc. are eternal and uncreated. They have got their own substratum. They cannot be created from substances other than themselves. Perchance if one says that God has created them, this also does not look sound because if God is a conscious being or consciousness is taken to be His characteristic, then how can atoms and space etc. be conceived to have been born from Him? It is quite impossible for the insentient to come out of the sentient. If we regard God also to be insentient, then it will become devoid of all the glory of peace, bliss, and knowledge. Just as it is impossible for material things to come out of God, similarly conscious beings called jivas cannot be born of Him. If God is taken to be sentient-cum-insentient, then we will have to content ourselves with the universe by calling it to be God, because universe consists both sentients and insentients. Perchance while admitting atoms, space etc. to be realities independent of God, you may assert that God is the giver of fruits of our actions. But this proposition also will fail. On this part, it would be advisable to consult Shaddarshan-Samuchchaya26 which has dealt with this topic at length.27 Q. 3 What is moksha? A. Moksha or salvation is the absolute liberation of self from anger, conceit, greed, and other nescient propensities that bind the soul with earthly coils and other limitations. There is a natural urge in life to be free from all bondages and limitations. A close consideration of this urge makes truth of the above saying of the wise men to be self-evident. Q. 4 Is it possible for an embodied soul to know precisely Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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