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Chapter - 9
Navamo Mokkhādhiyāro Moksa (Self-realization/Total Liberation)
Preamble/Introduction
1. Perfection and purity is integral to every soul : Every soul is an uncreated entity and exists in its own right from the eternal past but not in its pure and perfect state but the worldly state of existence which is a hiatus from the perfect state. Although degradation or fall has no beginning, the end of the degradation and the realization of the pure state (Self) is very clearly envisaged.
The Indian philosophers, in general, and Jains in particular, have always been conscious of the intrinsic potentiality of perfection of the soul and the possibility of realization of self-perfection. Indian thinkers are also unanimous that purity and perfection are integral to every soul and realization is not a new creation in the sense of emergence of an absolutely unprecedented state.
2. Worldly status is an evil : Again, the Indian philosophers are unanimous that the worldly embodied state of the soul is an evil and must be got rid of. The soul must realize itself. There is no ambiguity or controversy on this point. They also, agree upon the existence of a fundamental condition that sustains the worldly state and prevents the spiritual aspirant from reaching the ultimate goal and objective. This primal and most fundamental condition of worldly existence, punctuated by birth and death in unbroken succession is Delusion or Perverted Belief which accepts the evil for the good and rejects the good for the evil, masquerading as good. Under the influence of this overpowering defect, the soul identifies itself with the psycho-physical organism and the external environment. It develops love and hatred, sympathy and antipathy, desire and aversion for whatever is found to be conducive or otherwise to the temporary well-being of its embodied existence.
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