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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
632
Ātmat and Mokşa
Ātman and the Ātman is free from the duality of the subject and object. It is both, and still it transcends both. It is of the nature of light which is self-illumined; it shows itself and at the same time reveals other objects. It is thus inexpressible in words, and forms no object either for knowledge or experience. Its richness is incomparable with any object other than itself.
Such an ultimate reality, the Brahman itself, becomes the jiva in a particular and limited form. The jiva is in reality the Puruşa, the immutable principle as contrasted with the mutable Praksti. It is the nature of the Prakrti to be always in change and flux; while the Puruşa is only reflected in the various changing states of the Prakřti. It is the unchanging principle that appears to be changing, but does not change actually. The jiva is the finite and empirical soul having the sense of being one with the body and its sense organs; being the subject that experiences pleasure, pain, aversion, love, volition and acts differently in different circumstances, revolves on the wheel of birth and death to reap the fruits of its past actions, and has limited powers of knowledge, feeling, and willing. It acts as a moral agent and possesses essentially the consciousness of egohood, I-ness. It experiences pleasure when its desires are satisfied and feels grief when they are frustrated. It is thus always subjected to sufferings of the worldly life. The jiva is falsely identified
1 Jfāpes'vara : Amrtā mubhara, VII. 252. 2 Ibid. VII. 257.
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