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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Moka
initiate activity in the various things of the nature evoked a belief in the minds of the Vedic sages in the existence of some mysterious power that manifests itself in and through the movements of the things but itself remains imperceptible. The power seems to be analogous to the mana' power which the primitive people believed to exist in all the things that possess power to affect human life in some way; such a belief in the so-called mysterious power indicates the animistic' tendency. The Vedic thinkers also suspected the existence of such an 'energising principle' (Purusa) in the sun, moon, rivers, fire, etc., and which being different from those things was responsible for movements of them.
It is found after a careful scrutiny of the hymns of the RgVeda that the words like Suparņa, Ajobhāga, Satya, Ātman, Jīva, Prāņa, Manas and Asu stand on equal par and denote a factor in man which is subtler and is different from his gross body. Our main concern is with the word Ātman, which is usually derived from the root an-(to breathe) and is thus philologically related to Prāņa. Sir Monier Monier-Williams explains it as follows: Ātman (variously derived from an-37-to breathe; at-317-to move: cf. tman-147, the breath in RgVeda;) the Soul, principle of life and sensation - in RgVeda and Atharva Veda; the Self. The word 'Ātman' is used with various meanings in the Vedas. It is used in the sense of 'essence' as the 'svarūpabhūtaḥ
1 Monier-Williams : Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 135.
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