________________
Pure Soul and its Infinite Treasure
27
Every substance has two aspects – one aspect is permanent, constant and steadfast and the other which is evolving and changing through modifications. For example, a piece of gold when converted from bangle to necklace, new form of necklace is evolved, the previous form of bangle has become extinct and gold has remained gold, i.e., steady and constant. Similarly, soul takes many forms of births and deaths but remains the same soul. The soul is eternally steadfast, indivisible, single and inherently pure. It is pure all the times-past, present and future. In fact it is impossible to separate the modifications from the substance, one has to do so in an imaginary, abstract and theoretical manner in order to fully understand the real nature of the soul.
Just as when one shoots an arrow, one concentrates on the object ignoring other things, meditation implies concentration on the self, ignoring all the other things in the universe. Analysis of Nine Principles (Tattvas)
The earlier description of six substances constitutes a macro level view of the universe and description of each substance can be termed as micro-level analysis. All the other five substances do not serve any purpose by itself and are not relevant to us, if one does not know the soul. The pure soul is the crown of the universe and is explained through nine principles, which together constitute the path of liberation.
The soul (Jiva) is a conscious substance having its own infinite properties including perfect knowledge and perfect bliss. But one does not view oneself as a conscious eternal substance, and views oneself fallaciously as non-soul matter, (Ajiva) this is the greatest blunder committed by a
