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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
470
Atman and Mokṣa
"And as
mind or the antaḥkarna. S'akara says long as its connexion with the buddhi, its limiting adjunct lasts, so long the individual soul remains individual soul, implicated in transmigratory existence. In reality, however, there is no individual soul but in so far as it is fictitiously hypostatized by the buddhi, its limiting adjunct. Moreover, the connexion of the self with the buddhi, its limiting adjunct depends on wrong knowledge, and wrong knowledge cannot cease except through perfect knowledge; hence, as long as there does not rise the cognition of Brahman being the Universal Self, so long the connexion of the soul with the buddhi and its other limiting adjuncts does not come to an end." The individuality of the particular soul is caused by its conjunction with a limiting adjunct called the mind or the antaḥkarna. S'ankara states very clearly that "there is no reality in such thing as an individual soul absolutely different from Brahman, but Brahman in so far as it differentiates itself through the mind (buddhi) and other limiting conditions, is called individual soul, an agent enjoyer." S'amkara further compares the Higher Self and the individual soul with the snake and its coil and explains their real identity and apparent difference.3
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
1 S'amkara (Com.) on Vedanta Sutras. Tr. Thibaut, 2.3.30, Vol. II, p. 47. यावत् एव च अयं बुद्धि - उपाधिसंबंध : तावत् जीवस्य जीवत्वं संसारित्वं च । परमार्थतः तु न जीवः नामबुद्धि - उपाधिसंबंधपरिकल्पित स्वरूपव्यतिरेकेण अस्ति । 2 S'amkara (Com.) on Vedanta Sutras. Tr. Thibaut, 1.1.31, Vol. I, p. 104.
Ibid. 3.2.27, Vol. II, p. 174.
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