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The Path of Arhat : A Religious Democracy
fully liberated themselves by their own efforts. They have shared their knowledge with the humanity out of sheer love for it. After attainment of the salvation, they have no emotional attachment to the world, the real cause of the 'Rebirth'. As Chandogya Upanişadı puts it : 'Na sa punarā vartate, Na sa punaravartate' that 'He does not return back, he does noi return back'. A grain, that has already sprouted does not sprout again. Perfect non-activity, in thought, speech and deed, is possible only when one has become 'dead' to every concern of life; dead to pleasures and pains, dead to the power and pelf, dead to all so-called intellectual pursuits including social and political reforms. Lao-tse, the great Chinese saint and philosopher, asked us to remain 'dead' to all events of life, to adopt an attitude of objective observancs and to allow the nature to take its own course, for, according to him, even those trying to meddle with social and political affairs with perfectly altruistic motives of correcting the worid, are unnecessarily pocking their nose in the unfolding of the universal course Thus the real 'Siddha' is one who has literally died to time. Such a 'Siddha' has no reason to take 'Avata ra' to ameliorate the worldly woes.
Proof of Existence
If these are the attributes and characteristics of a soul, it is indeed very pertinent to ask what are the proofs of its existence. Bhagavatt-sūtra refers to Mahavīra as prescribing four means of true knowledge, namely-Pratyakşa' (Direct perception ), 'Anumana' (Inference ), 'Upamāna' (Analogy ) and 'Agama' ( Scriptures ). All these four means are utilised, hereafter in proof of soul's existence,
According to the modern science, every atom of every object possesses electrons, protons and neutrons, which constitute the source of energy. We have seen that this energy is the spirit because it is the motivating force. In a living object this
1. 7 garrada, 7 a garradia', Chandogya Upanişad, 8/15/1.
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