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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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The Upanisads
its dissolution in water. He says "It is as a lump of salt cast in water should dissolve right into the water; there would not be (any) of it to seize forth, as it were (iva), but wherever one may take, it is salty indeed, ---so-lo, verily, this great being (bhūta ), infinite, limitless, is just a mass of knowledge (vijñāna -ghana). Arising out of these elements (bhūta), into them also one vanishes away. After death there is no consciousness. "1 The philosopher of the Mundaka Upanisad describes the nature of the union of the individual soul with the Supreme Self in the following words-"As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and their form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the divine Person, who is greater than the great."? Further he says that the actual state of the union does not allow any distinction between the individual soul and the Self. It is said in the Kathopanisad "As pure water poured forth into pure, becomes the very same, so becomes the soul (atman). There is no one experience and no one to get the experience. There the experience becomes the experiencer and the experiencer the experience. They are one and the same thing. The knower becomes the known and vice versa. The following verse of the Mundaka Upanisad states it in the clearest words: "He who knows that highest Brahman becomes even Brahman. In his race no one is born ignorant of Brahman. He overcomes grief,
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1 Brh. Up. 2.4.12.
2 Mundaka Up. 3.2.8. Katha Up. 4.15.
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
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