________________ unmerited Guru degenerates into a bad type of a worldly person, and he leads his followers to deep darkness and bondage. According to Shrimadji, only a truly enlightened Guru deserves to be a spiritual guide. To follow others is a sheer waste of time. Later on, the doubts of the aspirant regarding the six fundamental truths, are posed and considered and conclusively replied so as to dispel them for ever and to help the disciple to see the truth in its purity. Regarding the nature of the soul it is said that as it is quite different from the body, no bodily sense organ can perceive the soul. The unreasonable obduracy to try to see the soul by any or all of the physical sense organs results from the attachment of the soul to the living body. Philosophically the soul and the body are two absolutely separate entities like the sword and its scabbard. The soul is neither a body nor its senses, nor breath. The soul is the source of organic unity of a living being. The soul is the all-knower, always the subject and co-ordinator of the information collected through the senses. The soul is conscious, knowing and blissful in nature. The conscious and unconscious differ in kind and not in degree. Hence the unconscious cannot probe the conscious. But the conscious is a quite powerful light to understand the unconscious. Hence, the superiority of the conscious over the unconscious. Such a soul eternally exists, it has no beginning and no end. The body which is composed, has an end but the unique soul is neither composed nor decomposed. Though the soul and body are two different realities both are found to be cooperating in a living organism. One helps or hinders the other. All creation and dissolution can be understood by the conscious soul but the conscious soul can be known only by itself and by no other physical or visible means. Hence, the talk of the source and decay of the soul is unmeaning. Shrimadji confirms the belief in births and rebirths. An unconscious body cannot act by itself. If an animal moves, it can only do so as directed by the conscious soul living in it. Hence, the soul is the author of all activities. It is not the nature of the soul always to act, though no activity without it, it can cease to act also. Metaphysically the soul has no reason to act and so it is unattached to the body, but in worldly practical life we see the soul propelling the living body to various activities to suit its motives formed by its association with and attachment to the body. Further Shrimadji has elaborated the Jain doctrine of Karma and its various categories, and has shown that no principle of God is needed to explain animal and human activities. Activities naturally being the fruits enjoined with them and no divine force is needed for this arrangement. He uses a fine logic to show that, as doing good or bad actions results in enjoying good or bad rewards, not doing them is the way to be free from their results. The first path leads to bondage, the second to liberation. To say that only a conscious soul can initiate activity, does not mean that it must always act and as doing something brings some result, not doing it should bring the opposite result. If activity, good or bad, will lead one to bondage, keeping away from it should lead one to its opposite namely release. The great Tirthankaras have reached the state of non-attachment to all bodily forms, hence, they are eternally free. Release is the fruit of retirement from action. In the Siddha state, the soul is
