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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
realisation through sell-surrender and self-eslacement - the sùpreme satisfaction of religious emotion. The liberated soul is not God, but neither is he separated from His all-comprehensive existence. This is Sayujya-bhakti ( unitive devotion ). To Madhva, the distinction between God and Self is real.2 Though the Jiva is absolutely dependent upon God, he is active and dynamic. 3 Hence Mokşa is 'blessed fellowship and not a mere identification. Thus in the state of Mukti, there is not only the utter absence of pain but also the presence of positive bliss. To Nimbarka, with whom the soul is both different and non-disferent from God ( Bledá bheda), complete submission results in both God-realisation and selfrealisation which is endless joy and bliss. Suddhadvaita school of Vallabha regards the relation between God and Soul as that of whole and part. Duality and distress go together. The moment the soul is one with God, we get final release which is utter bliss. To other Vaişpavites like Sri Caitanyadeva, Jaideva, Vidyapati, Candidása etc., to whom the ultimate reality is love and grace, liberation means love through divine grace. Bhakti is Mukti.
In the Gīta, we find that the status of souls is that of different fragments or sparks of God; hence Mokşa must be the unity with Puruşottama--indeed a blissful state. However, it must be sameness of nature (Sádharmya ) with God, and not Identity ( Sarūpya ). But in the Upanişads, as in the Advait Vedanta, the realisation of Oneness with God is the ideal of man, which is a state of ccstasy and rapture, a joyous expansion of the Soul.
To the Kāpalikas, Mokşa is found in the sweet embrace of Hara and Parvati ( Hara-Pārvatyalirigatii ); to the Pasupats, it lies in the holding of all power ( Paramaiśvaryam ); to the Udāsīns ( atheists ), it is in the eradication of cgoism ( ahau1. Sadhu Santideva : The Critical Examination of the Philo.
sophy of Religion, Vol. II, p. 986. . Madhva-blāşya on Brahma-Sūtra, III. 3. 1. 3. Ibid, 11. 3. 38.
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