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I am the Soul
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it has taken on some body form. It is associated with several jivas and several pudgalas. It goes through repeated births and deaths. That is why the atma gets identified as human or demigod. For a jiva in the material world to be identified, it has to be placed in one of the four life forms. In reality, the atma is not human, but the body it has worn is that of a human.
In practice we make such usage of words - you may say a pot of water or a bottle of ghee. In reality, the pot is made from clay but since it has been filled with water, we called it a pot of water. The bottle is made from glass, but since it has ghee in it, it is called a bottle of ghee. Similarly, atma is atma. It is called a human because it has taken the body of a human. There are several such practicalities in life, which are merely for understanding.
After understanding this the sadhaka atma has to consider that the atma in spite of being pure and intelligent, its present transitory state is impure. To purify it, to remove the stains of karma remaining on the atma, it is necessary to find some means. If the means are not activated, atma will never get purified. What are these means? The external activity that is done towards the goal of the pure soul, such as observing austerity, satsang, devoted pursuit of the three gems and so on. As the devoted pursuit progresses through these means, so does the purity of the soul.
But there are several stubborn jivas who accept only that true pure form of atma as described by niscaya naya and insist that 'I am pure, detached and dispassionate. In my true form there is not even an iota of blemish, so why do I need restraint, vows and limitations, pratyakhyana etc.?' And such jivas become unrestrained. They do not inculcate penance, renunciation or restraint in their life and keep talking about moksa! Their life becomes perverted.
Brothers! To a jiva, which has reached the determined goal, abandoning the means will not be very detrimental, because
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