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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Moksa
the ancient Rsis which they had given out in the inspired moments of their intuitions. The Rsis seem not to have been motivated to compose the hymns (mantras) to propound any particular system of Philosophy. Although the hymns contain the germs of philosophical thinking, it is impossible to construct any definite system out of them. They are more religious than philosophical in character. The sages were impelled more by a poetic vision than by philosophical reasonings. The hymns exhibit a kind of religious humility and submission to the natural agencies. They are the verses sung in praise of the natural agencies like the wind, the fire, the rain, the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, the dawn, the thunder, etc. Some of them are the verses sung by the Vedic sages in praise of the beneficial things and forces of nature and others are prayers to appease the evil forces of nature to seek from them security and protection. Some of them seem to have been sung by being influenced by the sublimity and grandeur of the nature. The fresh and sensitive mind of the ancient man must have felt fear, joy, awe and adoration towards the majestic natural agencies, which appeared to him extremely powerful to affect him in unknown ways. A. Barth says ---"Nature is throughout divine. Everything which is impressive by its sublimity, or is supposed capable of affecting us, for good or evil, may become a direct object of adoration. Mountains, rivers, springs, trees, plants are invoked as so many high powers. The animals which surround man, the
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