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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
90
Atman and Moka
When unto mipdlessness one comes,
Then that is the supreme estate!”1
The Yogic discipline is very rigid. The individual, because of the austerity of penince and unflinching devotion to the Self, undergoes a total physical and psychological revolution, even to the extent that the liberation can be called his new birth - a total transformation of his outer and inner being.
The Chandogya Upanisad stresses the need of the purification of the physical and mental being of the individual. It states — "When the intellectual ailment has been purified, the whole nature becomes purified. When the whole nature has been purified, the memory becomes firm. And when the memory (of the Highest Self) remains firm, then all the ties (which bind us to a belief in anything but the Self) are loosened. Thus the attainment of godhood or the highest state of spiritual perfection depends much upon the individual's preparation for it. The individual's desires and deeds are mostly responsible for his spiritual progress.
Every person is the real architect of his destiny. If he means to attain perfection and godhood, he can do so by concentrating all his energies with a singular and undeviating devotion to the Brahman. Man becomes as he wills. It is said by Yājña valkya "This Self, then, as his conduct and behaviour has been, so does he become. He, whose works have been
1 Ibid. 6.34. 2 Ch. Up. 7.26.2.
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