Book Title: tman_and_moksa
Author(s): G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University

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Page 785
________________ Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra www.kobatirth.org Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir Conclusion 753 different directions. In spite of the differences in the nature of Ātman (Self) and Moksa (Liberation), certain features concerning them have been held in common by the different Systems. It will be desirable to take a consolidated view of the changes in the characteristics of "Ātman' and 'Moksa' and they will make articulate the lines of development. Certain lines of evolution in these ideas will be coming up and will become visible and articulate. I shall base my conclusion on a comparative study of the changes in their ideas under the following heads. Ātman, however, has appeared as the principle of sentience and intelligence, as the experiencer of pain, pleasure, desire; the moral agent of actions and the reaper of the fruits of those actions; the persistent entity that desires to attain liberation and enjoys it by undertaking the necessary efforts for it. It also appears as the principle of self-consciousness. It can be said broadly that Moksa (liberation) also repeatedly appears as freedom from pain and suffering, cessation of rebirth and Karma, and sometimes as the enjoyment of supersensuous happiness and the highest bliss, perfect knowledge and power, by becoming free from the bondage of ignorance and other worldly limitations, by means of knowledge (jñāna), work (karma), and devotion (bhakti) to God. The soul in its pure, metaphysical, and transcendental aspect is known as the 'Self' and has been sometimes identified with the ultimate Reality, or Brahman; while the 'Self' as standing in contraĀ 48 For Private And Personal

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