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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
462
Atman and Mokşa
(31F) due to its connection with the Upādhis. It is entangled in the sanäsāra (ET) due to these qualities produced by the Upādhis. He therefore remarks “The beginningless and endless saṁsāra depends only on the soul's true nature hidden from it by the Upadhis due to Avidya. They make Brahman the individual, active and enjoying soul...."! S'amkara makes a categorical statement about it as follows - "To the highest Self which is etenally pure, intelligent and free, which is never changing, one only, not in contact with anything, devoid of form, the opposite characteristics of the individual soul are erroneously ascribed; just as ignorant men ascribe blue colour to the colourless ether."?
The Brahman or the Ātman is the underlying reality of every thing. The duality of the knowing subject and the objects known is valid only on the phenomenal plane. The ultimate reality cannot be either of the two; it cannot take either of the two sides and cannot reject the other. It being the foundation, substratum and source of all it can reject nothing which exists. It embraces every form of existence whether subject or object. It itself appears sometimes as the subject when encircled by certain peculiar adjuncts like the senses, the mind and the buddhi, and appears as the object when it possesses certain perceptible qualities. It is in all the infinite number of things and still shares the property of none of
1 Deussed Paul: The System of Vedānta, p. 468.
2 S'amkara ( Com.) on Vedānta Sūtras (Tr. Thibaut ), 1.3.19, Vol. I, p. 190.
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