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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
530
Atman and Mokpa
knowledge of the essential nature of the (Bhagavat) Isvara and the attainment of the feet of the Isvara (1924)? Mahendranath Sircar says ---" Jñāna or dharmabhūtajñana is an eternal self-illuminating existence. It is an attribute (dharma). It admits of expansion and contraction, it reveals or expresses objects, other than itself to atman. In īs'vara it is always expansive and all-embracing, in others it is limited, in others, again, sometimes expansive, sometimes limited. It is a continuous existence.''? The souls are bound (baddha) due to their karma which arises out of their mistaken identity with Praksti and their intelligence thereby undergoes the infinite variations of contraction (sañkoca ) and expansion (vikāsa). The quality (dharmabhūtajñāna) undergoes expansion and contraction but the subject itself reinains immutable and eternal. The soul has in addition to intelligence (TTT), the attributes of responsibility (Fra) and appetition (Hera). By these characteristics the soul is a distinct entity and it is different from body, senses, mind and vital airs; it being permanent does not depend on other things. It remains in the world and moves from birth to birth as long as it acts and is not free from Karma which arises out of the Nescience or ignorance about its own real nature.
1 Sarvadars'anasangraha, pp. 110, 111.
2 Sircar Mahendranath : Comparative Studies in Vedāntism, p. 37.
3 Ramānuja — Com. on Vedanta Sūtras, Tr. Thibaut, 1.1.1, p. 72
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