Jain Journal 1970 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 39

THE MISERY
—its what, why and how
(from Vol. IV. No. 2)
PRADYUMNA KUMAR JAIN
On The Salvation (Mokşa)
The What
To be free from the shackles of karma is salvation.58 It is the perfection of soul in itself, a self-restored state of the real, an autodynamic actuality of the essential nature of the soul. There is no more inertia attached with it. It is the supreme state ornamented with the dirtlessness, bodylessness, un-approachability by senses, perfections, purity, supreme greatness, supreme accomplishment, supreme benefaction, ineffability, siddha-hood, etc., etc.59 In, short, it is devoid of six types of defects (dosa).60
Psychologically speaking salvation is the end of spiritual development, which is the supreme state of experience ; while logically, it is the complete deduction of the self-consciousness from the premises of selftranscendence (major) and particular categories of the mind (minor). It is a practical conclusion assimilating the essence and negating the modes of both the premises. Thus essentially it is something very real, whereas beyond the mental categories it is a complete nihil exposing nothing. It is, therefore, something and nothing both together.
Since the term mokşa is relative, for it is whole of itself qua nothing of what has been annihilated before. Hence from the viewpoint of its own self it is an ocean of infinitude subsuming in itself the infinity of knowledge, intuition, bliss and power, and what not. From the viewpoint of the 'other' it is a symbol of the total blankness, total non-existence and totally nothing, for the identity of the soul with the 'other' has shattered away and the karman has vanished. In the state of the
68 69 60
G.S. (Jiva Kanda), 62 to 65. A. Kh. to 290, p.410. M. Pd., 6.