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realising the otherness of external substances, rids himself of attachment to all external substances, even the overlordship of the three worlds shall give him no everlasting joy. One who has attained samyaktva is an emperor even though he may be poor in worldly terms. This is because he has overlordship of the spiritual realm, which is vastly more precious and important than the overlordship of the material world. On attaining even partially, the four eternal qualities of the supremely detached ones, namely eternal perception, eternal knowledge, eternal bliss and eternal vigour, his perception, intelligence, mind, speech and actions move towards the path of liberation. It is definite that he shall one day attain the boundless kingdom of liberation. What could possibly be greater or more profitable than that? Lord Mahavira gave up his palace and its attendant riches. He possessed nothing. And yet he had the greatest possible wealth of all, samyaktva. He owned the great, indivisible empire of the soul. Overlordship of the three worlds is fleeting. But overlordship of the kingdom of the soul is permanent. And samyaktva, the enabler of this overlordship is lasting. The wealth of the three worlds is external wealth. It does not belong to any one person forever. However, the inner wealth of the soul, samyaktva, belongs and remains with the soul forever. External wealth serves no purpose other than increasing one's karmic bondage.
Samyaktva is the supreme gain
Impelled by delusion and ignorance, worldly people desire material possessions. They consider possessing material wealth to be supremely gainful. But can those material possessions lead one to the path of salvation? No, material possessions never help the soul attain spiritual wealth. Instead, attachment towards material wealth impedes the soul's progress and drags it down to the lowest levels.
The things that we hold dear to us are truly enemies of our spiritual progress. For a deluded person,
possessions harm his spiritual progress since he remains attached to them. In contrast, the attainment of samyaktva can never be harmful to the soul. The soul, which has attained samyaktva sheds extremes of anger, arrogance, artifice and avarice and purifies itself.
Samyaktva destroys extreme desire and extreme passion and creates a world of equanimity for the soul to inhabit. Samyaktva cools down the burning heat of extreme attachment and aversion, helping the soul relax in the cool stream of unrivalled peace.
Unobtainable gains become possible through samyaktva
In the light of samyaktva, the soul internalises the difference between the sentient and the non-sentient and begins to value the sentient over the non-sentient. It no longer gives importance to transient worldly possessions and the external dispositions. This is when the soul realises through samyaktva that it has learnt to value the sentient over the insentient and this ability has helped it gain
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