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Introduction
43
(11 etc.). The pure Niscaya view-point consists in realising the self as unbound and · untouched by karmas, as one, steadfast and inseparable from its attributes and not
united with anything etc. The three jewels stand for that self, just as we know, believe in and follow a king, so also it should be with the self. The soul must exert to sever all attitudes of attachment as I and mine, because the absolutely pure self cannot be anything other than itself. It is not the body but the merits of the soul embodied therein that are to be praised. So infatuation with the objects external must be conquered, exhausted and completely relinquished; the Jñānin then is liberated. (14 etc.).
Ignoramuses identify the soul with various other things not being aware that they are all forms of matter from which, really speaking, the nature of the soul is absolutely different; they babble in conventional modes of speech which cannot stand for the Truth. Jiva has no material attributes, nor has it really to do anything with Jiva-sthānas and Guņa-sthānas which are all occasioned by karman; it is only for practical purposes that they are predicated of the Jiva in its transmigratory condition. If all these material states and entities are to be identical with Jiva, the differentiating line between spirit and matter will vanish out. The adjuncts and classifications of Jivas are the outcome of Nāma-karman (39-68).
One must realise the difference between the soul and the karmic influx, and leave off the states of anger etc., remaining in which the soul is bound by karman. When the danger of impurity is known, the soul refrains from the causes of asrava, Concentrating on the nature of the soul one should consider everything as extraneous. The psychic states of the spirit and the karmic transformations are naturally related; really speaking the soul is the agent of its spiritual states wherein the material stuff is transformed into [p. 46:] karman; it is only from the ordinary point of view that the agency of karman is attributed to the soul. When the soul realizes itself as an embodiment of knowledge, there is no more bondage occasioned by Mithyātva etc. If it is to be said that the soul is not bound etc., we are led to absurd positions: either there is no samsāra or there is the illogical position of the Sāmkhya doctrine (117 and 122). A Jñānin experiences psychic states of knowledge and the Ajñānin the opposite of the same. One rises above various shades of view-points and statements, when he comes to realise the pure self (69-144).
Demeritorious and meritorious karmas can be compared with iron and gold fetters respectively; to get liberation one must be free from both. It is necessary that attachment should be given up, and one should absorb himself in his pure self; otherwise all penances and religious practices are fruitless. To believe in Jiva etc. is faith, to grasp them is knowledge, and to avoid attachment etc. is conduct, which together constitute the path of liberation, as they counteract Mithyātva, ignorance and passions(145-163).
Mithyātva etc., which are the psychic states of souls in transmigration, are the causes of karmic influx. When the psychic state is free from passional tinge, there is no cause for bondage. A ripe fruit fallen to the ground cannot stick back to the stalk, so the karman, when once completely destroyed, cannot involve the soul in samsāra. A man of right faith, because of his discriminative ability, is above bondage (164-180).
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