Istopadesa The Golden Discourse

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 54

Verse 11
रागद्वेषद्वयी दीर्घनेत्राकर्षणकर्मणा । अज्ञानात् सुचिरं जीवः संसाराब्धौ भ्रमत्यसौ ॥
(11)
Our soul, due to nescience (ajñāna), keeps on pulling either end of the long rope – one end symbolizing attachment (rāga) and the other aversion (dveşa) - and, as a consequence, whirls round in the cycle of births and deaths (samsāra) for a very long time.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
Attachment and aversion are the soul's own psychical modes brought about by nescience which, in turn, is due to the soul's association with karmic matter. Psychical modes are the sole province of the soul and are not present in any physical matter. Karmic bondage causes dispositions like attachment, and such dispositions cause karmic bondage. Harmful psychical dispositions (bhāva), brought about by delusion (moha) are those that mislead cognition, i.e., the faculty of perception and belief (darśana mohanīya), and those that mislead the will or conduct (caritra mohanīya). Cognition and will, together, manifest in volitional states, marked by virtue or vice. If the object of cognition and will is desirable and good, the volitional state is virtuous, resulting into happiness. If the object be undesirable and bad, the volitional state is evil, resulting into misery.
To a worldly soul with nescience, psychical modes of attachment and aversion will occur naturally. On account of these psychical modes, the soul is driven into a state of weakness and karmic matter, virtuous or vicious, clings to it, causing karmic
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