________________
CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
37
This dialogue is so plain that I need not explain its esoteric meaning. It is on this dialogue that the various sub-divisions of the Vedantic philosophy have offered different interpretations. We will take the interpretation of the most prominent Vedantist Sankara. Sankara says: that is quite true as Prajapati said that the true Self has nothing to do with the body. For the body is mortal but the Self is not mortal. The Self dwells in the body, and as long as he thinks that the body is I and I am body, the Self is enthralled by pleasure and pain, it is not perfect, it is not the immortal self. But as soon as the Self knows that he is independent of the body and becomes free from it, not by death but by knowledge, then he suffers no longer, neither pleasure nor pain can touch him. When he has approached this highest light of knowledge, then there is perfect serenity. He knows himself to be the highest Self and therefore is the highest Self, and though while life lasts, he moves about among the pleasant sights of the world, he does not mind them, they concern his body only, or his bodily Self, his ego, not his absolute Self. He goes a step further and lays down that it is not the individual soul that is the highest Self, the highest Self is not different from Brahman; the interposition of ignorance, nescience or illusion leads the individual Self to believe that he is separate from Brahman; as soon as ignorance is removed, he is Brahman. He does not become Brahman, for really he was nothing less than Brahman. A post in darkness may seem to be a thief to a perosn but when the darkness is removed he realises the fact that it is a post and not a thief. On the disappearance of darkness, the object which was seen does not become a post but the fact is realised that it is and has ever been a post. In the same manner, the individual Self does not become the highest Self; only the truth comes out that it is the highest Self.
Essentials of Buddhism
Let us now turn to Buddha and see what he says as to the existence and nature of soul. Buddha's merit consists not in promulgating a special theory of his own as to the nature or
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
7
