Istopadesa The Golden Discourse

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 45

Istopadeśa - The Golden Discourse
वपुहं धनं दाराः पुत्रा मित्राणि शत्रवः । सर्वथान्यस्वभावानि मूढः स्वानि प्रपद्यते ॥
(8)
Entities, like the body, the house, the wealth, the wife, the son, the friend, and the foe, have attributes which are distinct from the soul; still, a deluded person considers these as his own.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The soul (jīva) is eternal. It is incorporeal and formless (amūrta). It is different from the body or the sense organs. But it is coextensive with the body it occupies. The term jīva represents a living being. It denotes a spiritual entity. Its essential nature is cetanā or consciousness. It has lived in the past, lives in the present and will continue to live in the future. Thus it is beginningless and has an unending continuous existence of a spiritual nature. The soul that lives in the concrete world of biological kingdom, associated with a gross body as well as the subtle karmic body, is the samsārījīva. The soul that has transcended the cycle of samsāra and has attained its nature of intrinsic purity as a result of the destruction of the associated karmic mire is the liberated soul, the Siddha jīva. This conception of jīva may be said to be the central doctrine of the Jaina philosophy.
All samsārī jīvas are embodied according to their individual spiritual status, and are subject to the cycle of births and deaths. The body, associated with each soul, is subject to growth, old age, decay and death. Death entails that the soul must quit the existing
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