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THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE JAINAS.
In the Universe, Jivas exist in two conditions. There are the pure, uncontaminated Jivas, exhibiting all the attributes of Perfec. tion. They are Omniscient. They want nothing, they are above desire, and they are ever happy. They are Mukta Jivas. The Samsari Jivas or embodied souls are contaminated by combination with fine molecules of fine Karmic matter, which obscure their inherent attributes such as Omniscience, Peace and Beatitude. It is this Karmic combination, which is the inducing cause for attracting fresh Karmic matter to the soul, and keeping up the state of contamination.
There is a limit to the period for which karmic matter can remain combined and bound up with a soul, but before the expiry of that period, the activities of body, mind and speech, and the passions and emotions, generated by the karmic molecules already in contact, create a condition which attracts other Karmic molecules for bondage with the soul, and thus the process of falling off of old, and the bondage of fresh karmas goes on and on. The Karmas are ever changing in their intensity, duration, kind and quantity.
The stoppage of this process of bondage and the elimination of all karmas can be attained by effort, of which the ultimate result is Nirvana, Emancipation, Liberation from Karmas.
A pure Jiva cannot possibly be affected by Karmas. No force, no influence, no power, however strong, can affect it. It exists, in a constant condition of Supreme happiness, in the enjoyment of Omniscience and other inherent attributes.
सर्वविवत्तॊत्तीर्ण यदा स चैतन्यमचलमाप्नोति। भवति तदा कृतकृत्यः सम्यक्पुरुषार्थसिद्धिमापन्नः॥११॥
11. When Jiva, having got rid of all illusion, attains everlasting consciousness, it then becomes one who has accom. plished all that was to be accomplished, and is possessed of the success resulting from right exertion.
Commentary.
The ultimate object of human existence is to attain the perfect purity of the soul, its condition of inherent perfection. The obstacle to such attainment is ignorance, illusion, or Moha, and when that is removed, the inherent attributes appear and the latent becomes
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