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unblemished and flawless soul is accepted and known that one may be said to have samyaktva. Else, if one accepts the flawed soul as one's own, one cannot be said to have samyaktva.
Attaining the unblemished soul means that the soul has attained the stage of perfection where its awareness is unblemished by attachment and aversion and external objects. It may also be understood as the ascertainment of flawless knowledge and consciousness/intelligence.
Samyaktva is a distant goal until and unless there is firm conviction in the pure and unblemished nature of the soul. The seeker achieves the pure and unblemished nature of the soul once he realises that: • He is the soul, not the body • He is different and distinct from the body
Artifice, delusion, the feeling of mineness with external entities, attachment and aversion are all caused by ignorance and delusion which pervert the soul's disposition and encumber it with
passions and sensual desires • He realises that the soul's natural disposition is tranquilness and serenity
He realises that ignorance and delusion cause the soul to lose its natural disposition and descend into the four passions of anger, arrogance, artifice and avarice which extend his stay in the snakepit of transmigration
He realises that he will be freed of all desires and passions, likes and dislikes once he rids himself of ignorance and delusion.
Freed from ignorance and delusion, he shall attain the pure unblemished nature of the soul.
Once the seeker attains pure unblemished samyaktva, he is absolutely certain that death happens to the body, not to the soul. The soul is eternal and is characterised by existence, consciousness and bliss. The seeker becomes fearless and unaffected by the possibility of death.
Here is an inspiring story from Jain history:
Once upon a time, an old man approached a learned Jain preceptor and head of a group of Jain ascetics. He told the preceptor that he would like to take the ascetic vows and become his pupil. He also complained that he had met several other heads of Jain ascetics and asked them to accept him as their pupil but each of the heads declined citing his age. He was disappointed that the heads of ascetics had denied his request on seeing his physical age and had paid no attention to his strong commitment.
The Jain preceptor was a realised soul and a kindly and wise man. He accepted the old man as his ascetic disciple. The old man now began his study of the scriptures. The preceptor asked him to memorise an aphorism. Despite sincere efforts, the old man could not manage. Two or three days passed and he was still unable to memorise the aphorism.
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