Soul Science Part 01

Author(s): Parasmal Agrawal
Publisher: Kundakunda Gyanpith

Page 46

10
Pre-view (Purva Ranga)
worldly possessions is considered to be swinging in 6th and 7th Guṇasthāna. Such a monk while involved in walking/talking/eating is likely to be in 6th Guṇasthāna. The same monk in a state of attentiveness in the Self (even while walking/talking/eating) is in 7th Gunasthana. A living being in the first Guṇasthāna is unaware of the true nature of the soul. The stages from Gunasthāna 1 to Guṇasthāna 6 are called Pramatta. The literal meaning of Pramatta is unattentive to the soul or lazy or non-vigilant. The stages from Guṇasthāna 7 to Guṇasthāna 14 fall in the category of Apramatta (the prefix 'A' with Pramatta makes Apramatta that means 'not Pramatta").
This stanza says that the soul is neither Pramatta nor Apramatta. The soul is only the knower. Acārya Kundakunda wants us to focus our attention on the indivisible soul separate from all others (Ekatva-Vibhakta soul) even when it appears to be bonded with the externals such as human body, Karma, greed, lust, etc. He wants us to realize the eternal soul, the knower, the same soul in every situation. This stanza leads us to visualize the same soul even when the externals surrounding the soul change.
Question: Consider a person busy in making money (in the first
Guṇasthāna) and a saint under deep meditative stage (Apramatta). Whether the difference in these two persons is only in externals? Whether internally both are same? Internally, a person busy in making money may be experiencing the tension and the saint may be in a blissful state. How can we say both as the same?
Answer: As persons, both are not the same, but the EkatvaVibhakta soul in the businessman is exactly same as that in the saint. Here Acārya Kundakunda has focused on the eternal and internal aspects beyond time, emotions, etc. In this treatise, in the next chapter we would learn that tension, greed, anger, etc., associated with a soul are not internal aspects of the soul in a true sense. A true internal aspect is not influenced by the external events or things. Greed, anger, etc., depend on externals.