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The Discourse Divine
[ श्लोक
Whatever action is beneficial to the soul is harmful to the body, and whatever action is beneficial to the body is harmful to the soul!
Note: The association of the soul and the body being the cause of the pain & misery appertaining to embodied existence, nirvana really only signifies the destruction of the fleshy prison of the soul, when the latter, fully exalted and immortal in its own right, is installed in the Temple of Divinity as a God, by the mere process of emancipation from the bondage of matter. Hence, whatever tends to the fattening of the body is sarily the source of continued affliction to the soul and vice versa. इतश्चिन्तामणिर्दिव्य, इतः पिण्याकखण्डकम् ।
neces
ध्यानेन चेदुभे लभ्ये, क्वाद्रियंताम् विवेकिनः ॥ २० ॥
When the divine wish-fulfilling Jewel and a piece of refuse both are obtainable by meditation, which of these will the man of discrimination choose?
Note: The man of discrimination will naturally prefer the soul which is like a divine wish-fulfilling Jewel, capable of conferring the inconceivably great boon- the status and the joy of Divinity-to a passing pleasurable form of sense-tickling that is like a worthless piece of khali (a cake of sesamum seeds from which oil has been extracted) and serves only to prolong and to embitter the bondage of karmas. स्वसंवेदन सुव्यक्तस्तनुमात्रो निरत्ययः ।
अत्यंत सौख्यवानात्मा, लोकालोकविलोकन: ॥२१॥
This soul can be adequately known by self-contemplation and is of the size of its body, immortal, of an exceedingly blissful nature and the knower of Loka and Aloka !
Note: In this sloka the acharya has given a brief description of the soul as freed from the bondage of matter. It is, roughly speaking of the size, of its physical body and is indestructible, hence immortal. Knowledge and bliss appertain to it by nature, being but two of its divine attributes. It can be known adequately in self-contemplation, and when established in its natural purity, freed from the corrupting companionship of matter, it is the enjoyer of unbounded joy and the knower of the entirety of things, which constitute what is known as the Lokaloka (Loka=the universe of life and matter+aloka= the infinity of pure space lying beyond the Loka).
संयम्य करणग्राममेकाग्रत्वेन
चेतसः ।
AKAIAAKAAIFETIÀzraâarafa fra 112211
Controlling his senses, with concentrated mind, the knower of the Self should contemplate the Self, seated in his own Self, through the Self!
Note: The contemplation of the divinity of the self, that is the soul, is only possible through the soul itself, by turning attention inwards.
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