Golden Steps To Salvation

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

Page 29

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If we break a coconut containing water, the round shell comes off in pieces but if we break a dry coconut. the round kernel comes out intact. The body is like the coconut. The jiva is like the round kernel and attachment is like the water in it. The sādhakas realising this afasta" or the knowledge of distinguishing the body from the soul strive to dry up or discard their attachments.
We acquire the knowledge of jiva by the employment of the expression “I”. Our mind gets concentrated on this usage. Some people consider that the senses are the jiva on the basis of such thoughts as : "I can hear; I am blind; I am deaf; I am dumb etc.” Again, some scholars consider that the body itself is the jiva on account of such reflections as "I am ill". "I am well”, “I am taking a bath”, “I am small”, “I am big", "I am black”, “I am white”, “I am short”, “I am tall”, “I am fat" etc.
A subtler search for the meaning of the jiva has been there. "I understand", "I know", "I recognise". On account of the employment of such expressions it was thought that the intellect was the jiva. But on account of the use of such expressions as : "I think". "I consider", “I contemplate", "I am worried”, “I am unhappy" etc. the mind has been considered to be the Jica.
Finally, the employment of the expression, "I am", demolished the entire super-structure of such contemplations. These people say that the jiva is that which makes us experience our existence and that it is not the senses or the body or the intellect or the mind. They argue that if that were not so, no one would use such expressions as my body, my intellect, my mind etc.
fastra” or the wisdom of distinguishing one from the other is the name given to the knowledge that enables us to distinguish between the body and the soul; and from this knowledge detachment originates. The things that we see in the physical world do not accompany us.