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D. C. Mehta
of things. Everywhere we find development and growth. Whether we look to the world of plants or of animals, the field of history or biology, this description of existence is clearly born out. Let us take the case of the life history of a à plant. It begins itself in the form of a seed. The seed which is planted in the soil breaks the shell and sprouts out. At every stage, we find change of appearance of a new state and disappearance of old state; the old leaves being shed off and the Dew sprouts coming out, the plant or the tree remaining. What is true of the plant is equally true with each of the six kinds of substances, The apparent paradox thus reveals the intrinsic pature of Sat, the existence. We find it illustrated everywhere in the univers The presence of God is not necessary for being an instrument of any of these changes in the different substances, including the sou). God cannot be the giver of bappiness and misery to the soul or beings. If God is said to be such glver, godliness of God passes away and he will be involved in faults, like attachment and aversion,
phaladata isvara tani emam nathi jarūra / karma-svabhave pariname, thaya bhogathi dūra //
('Atma-Siddhi', Stanza-85) “There is no necessity of God as the fruit-giver of their Karmas. The Karmas fructify by their own nature (due to the attribute of changeability) and they shed away on the enjoyment of their fruits.
15. Those souls, who being unattached to and getting rid of all the auspicious and evil thought activity, have freed themselves from all the Karmic bondages, attain their unfettered, intrinsic pure nature. They cross the ocean of worldly existence and go to the top of the Lokakaśa. They are the Siddhas; they are the Gods. Just as there is plurality of souls, there is plurality of Gods. They are souls, who have completely fiberated thems selves, who have attained Mokşa. The individual worldly souls who are potential Siddhas or Gods, have limited themselves by the Karmic condia tions. The Karmic conditions are also known as U padhis. They are the associating cause or Nimitta Karana for confusion between the pure nature of soul and the thought-activity, between the soul and non-soul substances. The pure nature of soul can be compared to some extent with the shining sun in all brilliance and the worldly soul with the sun hidden by dense layers of clouds, which bids the sunshine. The rays of the sun will permeate through the clouds, according to the variations in the density of the clouds. These variations in the appearance of the sun correspond to the various stages of the Spiritual development of the soul. When the clouds completely get dispersed the gun beglas to shine, without any intervening Interruption. In a similar manner, Karmic U pādhis of different