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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
534
Ātman and Moksa
by knowledge and by exclusive devotion (af) to the Supreme Self, the Paramātman. The soul can attain eternal liberation by intellectual love (bhakti) and by (stafer) total submission to the Divine Person. The Paramātman or God in His turn helps the devotee to reach Him by removing from his path the obstructions and impediments. He is extremely kind and merciful to his devotees. God is a treasure of an infinite number of auspicious qualities which he bestows upon the released souls and they enjoy them to their perfection. God gives eternal security, bliss and infinite knowledge to such souls. They no more return to the world which is full of afflictions.
Rāmānuja agrees with Samkara and others in holding that bondage (bandha) is due to Nescience (avidyā) which consists in the identification of the soul with body, senses, and the Prakrti (acit). The two are exclusive and opposed to each other. Bondage exists so long as the individual soul identifies itself with the bodily experiences and its limitations; it suffers pains and afflictions due to its false estimation, so long as it does not experience unity with the Brahman and regards the plurality real by losing the sight of the underlying unity of the Brahman and its pure, eternal, perfect and blissful nature. Rāmānuja says "Release, which consists in the cessation of all Plurality, cannot take place as long as a man lives. And we, therefore, adhere to our view that bondage is to be terminated only by means of injunctions of meditation, the result of which is direct knowledge of Brahman, Nor must
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