The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 31

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THE TRUTH
of soul, in as much as that which is not composed of parts, that might fall apart, is necessarily immune to destruction and death. The soul is, therefore immortal by nature. The following quotation from Prof. William Mac Dougall, the great authority on Psychology, will be of interest :
"We are compelled to admit....that the so-called psychical elements are.... partial affections of a single substance or being; and since....this is not any part of the brain, is not a material substance but differs from all material substances in that while it is unitary, it is yet present, and can act or be acted upon, at many points in space simultaneously,. ...we must regard it as an immaterial substance or being. And this being thus necessarily postulated as the ground of the unity of individual consciousness, we may call the soul of the individual”.
4.7 As explained earlier, pleasure or pain are only the modifications of the soul substance, brought about by nervous impulses or thought processes. No external event or object contains pleasure or pain, although these do become the cause for such impulses. Same event or object affects different persons in different ways-causing pain to some and pleasure to others. Hence, it is the soul itself which converts these impulses into pain or pleasure according to its own state. Both pleasure and pain are transient, the latter being mostly the lot of living beings in this world. The little pleasure we get, is obtained after so much worry and trouble and is generally productive of so much suffering, both in its procurement and subsequently, that it is no exaggeration to say that it is born in pains and ends in tears.
Fortunately, there is another kind of joy which consists in natural ‘pulsation of pure delight of the soul, which being its very attribute becomes an inalienable asset in its hands once we destroy the causes that obstruct its realisation. We are all familiar with the feeling of light-heartedness, satisfaction and joy which arises on the successful performance of some task imposed on our will, e. g., the passing of a University examination. What seems to happen in such cases is that the load of worries and anxieties that lay heavy on the soul, is removed, thus enabling the natural state of its being to manifest itself to a certain extent. It is, thus, not the imbibing or absorbing of anything from without, but the removal of an obstruction, the drawing out of a kind of mental stopper, which enables the natural