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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
98
Atman and Mokpa
Thus, it is true, as Deussen remarks, that actions cannot effect liberation; actions produce other births good or bad, knowledge of Ātman alone can bring about liberation to the individual soul.
So far as the individual soul that has not attained the knowledge of the Brahman is concerned, it roams through the realm of the various lives; it assumes various forms of and passes from species to speceis in accordance with the fruits of his deeds. At the death of the individual his voice returris to fire, his breath to the wind, his eye to the sun, his mind to the moon, his hearing to the quarters heaven, his body to the earth, his soul (Ātman) to the space, the hair of his head to the plants, the hairs of his body to the trees and his blood and semen are restored to water but what remains behind is the Karma. What remains undestroyed is the Karma of the individual and in virtue of good action one becomes good and in virtue of bad action one becomes bad.' Thus, it is clear that the physical body is perishable and it returns to matter from which it is created; but that which passes to the next birth is the Karma which is comparatively more subtle. The individual obtains another body only because he has to reap the fruits of his Karma in the previous birth. Karma is the potency, the power which does not go out of existence without being exhausted in the form of experiences of the individuals. The Karma wields great power and is also beyond the authority of the gods. The individ
1 Bịh. Up. 3.2.13.
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