________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
230
Ātman and Moka
own Karma, and thus traverses through the various grades of samsāra. Heaven, Hell or purgatory or ultimately release itself from the fetters of bondage by the dissipation of its own Karma whereupon it becomes pure and perfect and fixed as it were in the regions of Aloke." 1
The soul is eternal in its pure form but while it is in the cycle of samsāra it seems to possess beginning and end; it seems to be born and dead. Nahar writes ---"Thus we see a reality, the soul has no beginning nor end; but viewed with the light of its own states or grades of existence, it has a beginning and an end -and herein lies the reason why the soul is stated to be both with and without form. So long as it has to go round and round through the repetition of births and deaths it has a form. But viewed with the light of bliss and beatitude which it attains to by being freed from Karma, it has no form. For, if on the one hand, the soul is to have a form by the virtue of its own, then it cannot be dull insentient matter - pudgala devoid of all consciousness and intelligence (jinicaitanya or sa áb.ta); on the other hand, if it be absolutely formless then by the virtue of its being free from all activities too (kriyārā hitvāt), bondage and free. dom would become incompatible with its own nature and saṁsāra too would be impossible and there would, therefore, be no necessity for teachers to impart instructions on the real nature of the soul nor for' scriptures enjoying duties which are required
1 Ibid. p. 279.
For Private And Personal
