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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Upanişads
.91
good becomes good; he, whose works have been evil, becomes evil. By holy works, he becomes holy; by sinful works, sinful. It is for this reason that they say that a person consists merely of desires; as his desire is so is his will; as his will; so his work; as his work, so his evolution."| The Mundakopanisad is, therefore, perfectly justified in stressing the need of the moral Katharsis of the individual for the invaluable spiritual attainments. The Mundakopanişad, therefore, emphaticaliy states that the Atman can be attained neither by sight, nor by word of mouth, nor by any actions whatsoever.? It is only when a perfect Katharsis of the whole moral being takes place by the c!earness of illumination, that one is able to realise the immaculate God after meditation. It becomes evident from this passage, that the Self could be attained only by knowledge and not by the rituals and sacrifices as the Vedic thinkers held. There seems to be a distinct advance in thought from the Vedic to the Upanisadic period, in so far as the Upanişadic thinkers did not accept the Vedic religion of sacrifices and rituals; they declined to accept that sacrifices were absolutely necessary for liberation; on the contrary, they emphatically preached that knowledge alone can liberate the individual soul from the earthly fetters and from the wheel of births and deaths. Even the moral actions were not sought as ends-in-themselves, but as necessary means for the purification of the individ
1 Bịh. Up. 4.4.5. ? Mundaka Up. 3.1.8.
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