Istopadesa The Golden Discourse

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 82

Verse 22
संयम्य करणग्राममेकाग्रत्वेन चेतसः । आत्मानमात्मवान् ध्यायेदात्मनैवात्मनि स्थितम् ॥
(22)
The man who has overpowered his senses through the fire of concentration of the mind should, seated in his own Self, contemplate on the Self, through the medium of the Self.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The soul is characterized by its essential attribute of knowledge, and the knowledge and the knowable have equal extension and magnitude. The soul when characterized by knowledge remains at its own place but it emanates its brilliance so as to cover the entire range of knowables. This relationship between the soul and the knowledge on the one hand, and between the knowledge and the knowable on the other, is nature-born. As an eye catches the form of an object but does not get transformed into the form of that object, in the same way, knowledge knows the knowable without getting transformed into the identity of the knowable. When perfect and full knowledge dawns in a soul as a result of the total destruction of the obstructive karmas, it continues to shine endlessly enlightening the contents of the universe - all objects of the past, the present, and the future. Such knowledge knows no obstruction and it is par excellence; it comprehends all objects directly and simultaneously and does not suffer from successive manifestation of knowledge.
The pure and conscious identity of the soul can be felt, albeit
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