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24 / Lord Mahavira
The Jainis believe that the self has an inherent capacity to get rid of the wheel of worldly existence and to attain liberation. This capacity or tendency causes uneasiness with worldly sufferings and tries to elevate the self. This tendency, force or urge comes out from within the self.
What would you think of a person who runs up and down aimlessly? People who strive to progress without any aim in life, never realize their goal. All spiritualistic philosophies declare that life is a journey and emancipation is the goal and to attain it, should be the aim of all human beings.
Lord Mahavira says-—“Faith, knowledge and conduct, together constitute the path of liberation; This is the path to be followed. The saints have said that if it is followed in the right way, it will lead to the liberation, otherwise it will lead to the bondage.
Nature of liberation can be realized only when the cause of bondage has been uprooted. Dissociation of karmas from the self and complete destruction of all karma is liberation.
A perfectly liberated being is totally free from all sorts of impediments and shines with his innate qualities of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite bliss and infinite power. He dwells in complete quiescence. In reality, the existence of the self in its pure form is Moksa. It is the state of complete development of the self. The liberated jiva always remains in sidhasila and never returns to samsara. As the seeds consumed by fire do not gruw further, so when their seeds in the form of karmas are burnt up, the liberated beings do not return to the universe. They live unexcelled for all eternity endowed with unending and unsurpassed bliss.
