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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Mokṣa
finitude of the soul, the Mayiya-caused by Māyā and the Karma resulting from actions. These impurities make the soul forgetful of its real eternal and pervasive nature. These impurities vanish when the devotees acquire the vision of S'iva that absorbs all the finite thoughts by means of the most intense contemplation of him. When this condition becomes stable the jiva becomes liberated for ever and becomes the Supreme Self, the S'iva Himself.' Thus, the Kasmira school of S'aivism holds that liberation or Moksa consists in attaining identity with S'iva by the jiva (s'ivasayujya-) and not in simply attaining similarity (sarūpya-) with Him. The individual soul becomes free from the three taints, attains complete at-one-ment with ParaS'iva; once such a state is attained Maya cannot separate them.2
The other branch of Kās'mira S'aivism is represented by Pratyabhijñās'astra. According to this school the jiva is neither a vikāra, modification of Siva, nor an illusory appearance, but it is S'iva Himself in essence, although concealed by Maya. It believes in the identity of the jiva with S'iva and it is forgotten due to ignorance. It believes in the selfillumined (svayaṁ-prakās'a ) nature of the Self and the individual souls are different due to the adjuncts with which the fundamental light of the Self is associated. In fact, there is only the same universal infinite self-illumined consciousness, and it is the
1 Bhandarkar R. G. Vaisnavism, S'aivism and Minor Religious Systems, p. 130.
2 Sakhare M. R.: History and Philosophy of Lingayat Religion, p. 358.
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