Istopadesa The Golden Discourse

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 19

Iṣṭopadeśa - The Golden Discourse
therefore independent of any outside agent, indestructible and divine. The soul becomes clear, incorporeal, free from all karmas (bhava-karma, dravya-karma and nokarma), epitomizing calmness, motionless, self-realized, and the embodiment of perfect knowledge. This is the intrinsic quality (svabhava guna) potentially present in all souls and which manifests explicitly in the Siddha jiva or the realized Self.
The svabhava guna of the soul gets corroded due to the interference of karmas. Karmas make consciousness - perception and knowledge - imperfect and impure. Due to karmas, many extrinsic qualities like delusion, attachment and aversion, set into the soul's disposition. These extrinsic qualities (vibhāva gunas) need to be got rid of to attain purity of the soul. When the four inimical (ghatiyā) karmas deluding (mohaniya), knowledgeobscuring (jñānāvarṇīya), perception-obscuring (darśanavarṇīya), and obstructive (antaraya) are destroyed, omniscience is attained. These four karmas are called destructive (ghatiyā) karmas as these interfere with the four infinitudes - infinite bliss, infinite knowledge, infinite perception, and infinite are the intrinsic characteristics of the soul.
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Omniscience is the infinite, all-embracing knowledge that reflects, as it were in a mirror, all substances and their infinite modes, extending through the past, the present and the future. Omniscience is the natural attribute of the pure souls. The Self attaining omniscience becomes an Arhat, the true guide to put us on the right path and worthy to be venerated and worshipped by the lords of the world.
The Arhat, the World Teacher or 'Jina', is free from eighteen imperfections, and possessed of forty-six distinctive attributes. The divine attributes and splendours of the Arhat are described thus in the Scripture:
The Arhat is free from these eighteen imperfections:
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