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The Self Realization
The body, senses or the breath, Can be the soul, all else is false, How can one know the soul ere death ? No clear signs I see as walls. 46
In these circumstances, since there is no sign or quality of the Soul known to us it is better to say either that there is no Soul at all or that the living body is the Soul. If one objects to identifying the living body with the Soul saying that the living body is purely in-conscient matter and it cannot know anything while the soul possesses knowledge as its essential quality according to Jainism, then the position may be a little modified. Yet it may be argued that the senses know (perceive) external objects and internal changes and therefore the senses instead of the whole living body may be called Soul. If it is further objected that while the senses are momentary and they cease to function, the Soul on the other hand survives the functioning of the senses of the living body it may be said that the breath continues to function when senses stop their work and therefore a further modification in the position may be made to the effect that breath instead of the senses or of the living body may be identified with the Soul. The fundamental marks of life and active consciousness in a living being open to sense-perception are only three. A living being moves its limbs, perceives its objects by its senses, and breathes. The third is more important than the first and the second. Whether there is a Self in inanimate object we do not know. But in all animate beings the movement, sense-perception and breathing are fundamentally present. Therefore, the disciple suggests that the Self can exist only as breath in living beings, that breath is the Self. Those who hold that the conscious Self has qualities other than the above three found in living beings should explain them.
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