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A Treatise on Jainism
93
two-fold aspect of substances, is essentially necessary for a full and perfect comprehension of an object. From the Nishchaya Naya. i.e. Real point of view man viewed as the Jiva is pure consciousness, and is immaterial. Again, as encased in the body, it is from Vyavahara Naya i.e. Practical point of view, said to possess weight, colour and other attributes of matter. It has varying degrees of consciousness according as it is in one-sensed, twosensed, three-sensed, four-sensed and fivesensed form of life. The vast majority of people in the world are so very much engrossed in mundane pursuits, that they pay no attention, and bestow no thought to find out the reality of their own selves; and therefore they go deeper into the mire of mundane meanderings. “Know thyself,” has been the precept and practice of all serious searchers after the truth about Soul. The high saints point out Vyavahara for the guidance of the ignorant. They first describe things as they ordinarily and seemigly appear and gradually they lead to the real aspect. If attention is confined to vyavahara only and no effort is made to grasp the real aspect, there would be no real progress and one would be unable
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