________________
402
The Unknown Pilgrims
the acetic attains the state of kevalin, since the four destructive karmas have now been annihilated, he possesses the four perfections in plenitude. Mokşa, by delivering the kevalin from matter, the body and karman, separates him entirely and for ever from all that constitutes form and permits him to rest in that state of pure consciousness that is proper to him, a state that is form-less. Atman is the cause of mokşa and moksa is attained in and through ātman.37 If one wished to express the essence of all asccticism, it could be summed up in one single word which embraces everything: ātma-dhyāna. Without ātma-dhyāna, the hope of reaching mokṣa will be in vain, but through ātma-dhyāna the ātman is transformed into paramātman.38 The word paramātman simply designates the same ātman, but the ātman in its plenitude, freed from the body. Acārya Kundakunda sheds a ray of light for us on the nature of this reality when he speaks of the realisation of the suddhātman, the ātman in total purity of being. How is this realisation possible? By laying hold upon 'aham', the 'I' in the core of its being, by means of prajñā, the faculty of knowing, of discernment. Just as through prajñā the rupture with matter is effected, so also through prajñā is the 'aham' realised; in other words, cetā, pure consciousness of being, when grasped by prajñā, is in truth aham; drstă, the seer, the one who has inner vision, when grasped by prajñā, is in truth aham; jnātā, the knower of inner reality, when grasped by prajñā, is in truth aham; aham and aham alone, identified here with the ātman, is. All the rest, all that constitutes the domain of the mental, of the affective, of thoughts, sentiments and impressions is other and does not belong to the essential aham.39
37 Cf. DravSam 39-40.
38 Cf. ADh IX, 29; Y Sas XII, 12.
39 kaha so ghippai appā paņņāe so u ghippae appa
jaha paņņāe vibhatto taha pannā eva ghittavvo. SamSa 296. paņņāe ghittavvo jo cedā so aham tu nicchayado avasesā je bhāvā te majjha pare tti ņāyavvä. SamSa 297. paņņāe ghittavvo jo datthā so aham...SamSa 298. paņņāe ghittavvo jo ņādā so ahaṁ. . . SamSa 299.
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