The Truth

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

Page 32

THE SOUL
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effervescence of the soul to be enjoyed at the time. The idea of pleasure cannot here keep pace with that of joy, in any sense, for while true joy is the sensation of freedom from the burden of worry and anguish imposed by some obligation, liability or limitation, pleasure depends on contact, whether real or imaginary, with an external object, and conveys no idea of freedom in its unqualified import.
The feeling of joy which is rooted in the idea of freedom, is not a momentary sensation like pleasure, but lingers in the soul, till the imposition of some fresh obstruction, or obligation or infliction of pain or worry in some other form, again obstructs its manifestation.
We also observe that success in more than one enterprise at the same time augments our sense of delight and intensifies its quality. The greater the sense of freedom, therefore, the greater the pulsation of delight, so that absolute freedom from all kinds of undertakings, obligations and limitations must actually be the signal for the coming into manifestation of the intensest kind of blissful ecstasy, the undying, unabating and unchanging emotion of joy. We thus conclude that the soul is itself the real source of all bliss and blessedness. The joy that arises from within one's being can only be an attribute of one's own self, since there can be no other meaning to the term “inside' with reference to an indivisible, partless substance like the soul. Now since a substance and its natural attributes are eternal, it is impossible that the happiness which pertains to the soul should ever become exhausted, when once the obstacles to its realisation are completely removed
As for grief and pain they arise from causes external to the soul and are, for that reason temporary conditions of our life. If it were not so and if they were the attributes of our being, they should have also arisen at moments when the mind is least disturbed and there is no external cause or disturbance. But it is contrary to experience. Actually, grief and misery arise from extraneous causes which may be summed up under two general heads, namely : (i) the association, real or imaginary, with that which is undesirable,
and (ii) the dissociation from what is desirable and desired. The external substances are governed by their own attributes and their functions are governed strictly by the rule of cause and effect.