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14
Paramåtma-prakaś a
nothing beyond mere seeing and knowing that is the realistic view. There is not a single region, in the eighty-four lakhs of births, which has not been visited by the soul wandering without obtaining the instructions of
he Ātman can be compared to a lame person; by himself he neither comes nor goes; it is the force of Karman (vidhi) that drags about the soul in the three worlds. (59-66)
The Atman is himself, and he can never be anything else; that is a rule. So far as his real nature is concerned, he is not born he does not die; ror does he bring about anything like bondage or liberation. Various terms like birth, old age, death, disease, gender and colour do not, in fact, refer to the soul but only to the body. (67-70)
Ātman is Brahman without old age and death which refer only to the body; So one should not be afraid of them. To reach the other end of Samsāra one should meditate on the pure spirit without minding whether the body is cut, pierced or destroyed. The soul is essentially different from attachment etc. which are occasioned by Karmas and from other insentient substances. The soul is an embodiment of knowledge, and everything else is foreign. The soul must be meditated on as independent of eight Karmas, as free from all the faults and as an embodiment of Darśana. Jñāna and Caritra. (71-75)
When the Ātman realizes himself by himself, he becomes Samyagdrsti, i.e., possessed of Right Faith or spiritualistic attitude, and gets rid of Karmas; but if he pursues the modifications his view is perverted, and he incurs the bondage of many Karmas and wanders long in Saṁsāra. Sticky and hard Karmas lead the soul astray in spite of the acquisition of knowledge. When the Atman develops perverted attitude, he grasps the reality in a perverted manner; and the conditions created by Karman he begins to identify with himself. Then he begins to say: "I am fair, I am black, I am of some other colour; I am slender, I am fat; I am a Brāhmana, a Vaiśya, a Kşatriya or the rest; I am a man, a neuter, a woman; I am a Digambara, a Buddhist or a svetāmbara: it is an ignorant fellow that speaks thus. Mother, father, wife, home, sons, friends and wealth : this is all a magical network of unreality, and a fool claims all this as his A being of perverted attitudes does nothing else than enjoying the objects of pleasure which are the causes of misery ” (76-84)
Samyagdarśana or Right Faith or insight is attained by the Ātman, when finding an opportune time, delusion is destroyed; thus necessarily the Ātman is realized. The wise man should realize that Atman is neither fair, nor red, nor black; he is neither subtle nor gross; he is neither a Brāhmana, a Vaisya, a Ksatriya nor the rest; he is neither, a man, a neuter,
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