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AWAKENING OF ENERGY-VALUE AND PURPOSE
Ever since man began to think, he has been thinking about the basic substance of the universe. Records of this thinking for the last five thousand years are available.
Truth is unlimited and the search for it will never end. Let us think of an event which happened two thousand five hundred years ago. A wise muni (ascetic) named Keśīkumara paid a visit to King Pradeśi. In the course of their conversation the king observed : "Sir, there is no soul. Consciousness does not exist as a substance. The body itself is the soul. The body and the soul are not two different-substances. That alone which is directly perceived by the senseorgans is true. We can perceive the body directly. This body itself is the soul. The unconscious alone is real. It is replete with energy. Consciousness is a by-product of a combination of various unconscious elements and it disappears suddenly leaving behind unconscious elements. Nothing like consciousness exists." Supporting his thesis with an example he further observed : "Take for example a child whose energy has not yet been developed. He cannot mount an arrow on the string of a bow. The selfsame child can shoot an arrow across a long distance when he has grown up and has collected energy in his body. If the body and the soul were distinct from each other and if the child had a soul, he would not take such a long time to handle a bow. If it had a soul, it would be the selfsame soul when the child grew up. Therefore the body and the soul are not two distinct entities."
Muni Kesi replied: "I agree with you. There is some truth in what you have said. But I would like to ask one thing. Suppose that the bow is broken and so is the string. Can anyone mount an arrow on such a bow even if he were
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