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THE JAINA GAZETTE
is regarded as an ideal life. The embodied state precedes in time; liberated souls have all reached that condition from the embodied state by their own efforts. The embodied state is never preceded by a pure state of the soul, nor is the pure or liberated state ever followed by an embodied state. The pure natural state of the soul includes the following eight points, viz., (1) full detailed knowledge of the present, past and future ; (2) infinite detailless knowledge or indefinite cognition; (3) permanent blissfulness; (4) right belief and right action, there is no wrong belief or wrong conduct; (5) continued life, not broken by deaths and rebirths ; (6) the soul in its pure state has no material body; the inhabitants of the hells and of the heavens as understood in Jainism have bodies which though not visible to us are nevertheless material, consisting of matter finer than air, but they are visible to one another; (7) in the liberated or pure state of the soul there is equality of status, no superiors or inferiors, all are equally knowing; and (8) there is infinite capacity of activity. These eight qualities are mentioned, but it is to be understood that the qualities of the soul are infinite.
Before the liberated state is reached these qualities are more or less obscured. That which obscures them is the soul's attachment to matter, from which in the past it has never been free. These doctrines apply not only tò man, but to all forms of living things, plants, animals. The embodied being is all the time doing things which obscure the natural qualities of the soul, and as soon as he leaves off so soon do these potential qualities come out or become actual. This is generally expressed in a technical way by saying that the embodied being is all the time attracting and assimilating that finest matter which is called karma or which becomes karma, the nature of which is to obscure his natural qualities. All pains and miseries, and all worldly benefits are the results of the working of these karmas, of actions done and consequences experienced. To quote another writer, ‘man arid man alone is responsible for all that is good or bad in his life.'
The way to reach the pure state is by stopping the inflow Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
