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NIRJARA.
89
as stated before, they differ in the degree of rigidity from the five similar ones of the layman.
The aim being the attainment of liberation from the liability to repeated births and deaths, the ascetic must ardently and earnestly strive for the emancipation of his soul in every possible way, shunning virtue as much as vice-since they are both instrumental in the prolongation of bondage--and trying all the time to establish himself in the purity of contemplation of his own effulgent atman. It is not to be supposed that the shunning of all kinds of activities of mind, speech and body is tantamount to idleness, pure and simple, or leads to stultification of character, as some unthinking writers have urged. The process of self-contemplation has nothing in common with these two characteristics of ordinary humanity, and implies the realisation of sleepless bliss, infinite perfection, true immortality and perfect freedom from all kinds of ties and bonds. There is no use denying the fact that what we call character means neither more nor less than a resolute frame of mind, though all sorts of evil passions and emotions are also, at times, allowed to be smuggled in under that name. Self-contemplation does not, in any sense, imply the eradication of will, rather, on the contrary, it leads to its development in the highest possible degree, so that if the word character be employed in its true sense, it is only in respect of the siddhâtman that it can express its full purport. Nor has the non-performance of virtuous deeds the effect of exposing the siddhâtman to blame for not doing good ; for the kind of good which flows from the Perfect Ones cannot be equalled by men even in imagination. Men
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