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Spiritual Enlightenment
Paramatman dwells in the body, but even to this day he is not realized by Hari and Hara, because they are devoid of the highest meditation and austerities. (36-42)
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So far as modifications are considered Paramatman is said to be coupled with origination and destruction; but in fact from the realistic point of view he is above them. With his presence the sense-organs function, otherwise the body becomes desolate. Through the sense-organs he knows the objects of sense, but he is not known by them. Really speaking there is no bondage nor transmigration for Paramatman; so the ordinary viewpoint (vyavahara) should be given up. The supreme characteristic of Paramatman is that his knowledge, like a creeper, stretches as far as the objects of knowledge are there. With reference to him the Karmas fulfil their own functions, but the Paramatman neither loses nor gains anything. Though bound by Karmas, he is never transformed into Karmas. (4349)
Some say that the soul is omnipresent; some hold it to be devoid of knowledge; some say that it has bodily size; and some others say that it is void (shunya). The Atman is allpervading in the sense that, when free from Karmas, he comprehends by his omniscience physical and superphysical worlds. Sensitive knowledge no more functions in the case of souls who have realized spiritual light; and in this sense the soul is devoid of knowledge. The pure soul, there being no cause, neither expands nor contracts, but it is of the same size as that of the final body; and in this sense the soul is of the bodily size. He is void in the sense that, in his pure condition, he is not amenable to any of the eight Karmas and eighteen faults. (50-56)
The Atman is not created by anybody, nor is anybody created by the Atman. As a substance the soul is eternal, but only its modifications appear and disappear. Substance is that which is endowed with quality and modification (guna and paryaya). Qualities are co-born (sahabhuva) with the substance, while modifications present themselves in succession on the substance. The Atman or soul is a substance; insight and
