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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
394
Atman and Moksa
to help the Yogins in their eftorts of attainment of liberation by means of removing obstacles from their path of progress towards isolation. Patañjali says - "From the devotion, Isvara exists."}} God is necessary for the Yogins to concentrate their minds on Him who in His turn enables them to secure total separation or aloofness from the Prakịti. God is not the ultimate object of attainment to the Yogins, nor do the Yogins seek to enter into direct communion with Him, nor do they wish to submerge in Him; because God is a (Purusa-vis'esah) a special Puruşa among the many others whom He helps. Max Müller says - "The idea of other Purusas obtaining union with him; could therefore never have entered Patañjali's head. According to him the highest object of the Yogin was freedom, aloneness, aloofness or Self-centredness. As one of the useful means of obtaining that freedom or of quieting the mind previous to liberating it altogether, devotion to Isvara is mentioned, but again as one only out of many means, and not even as the most efficacious at all. In the popular atmosphere of India this belief in the one Supreme Being may have been a strong point in favour of Patanjali's system, but from a philosophical point of view so called proofs of the existence of God would hardly stand against any criticism."2 The God of the Yoga is not beyond the three attributes but in Him the "Sattva is in 1 Pūtanjala Yoga Sūtru ni - Sutra 23.
ईश्वर प्रणिधानाद्वा । 2 Max Müller : The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, p. 426.
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