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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Conclusion
755
beyond comprehension but the ultimate Subject of all knowledge. About its size various opinions are expressed. Some hold it to be extremely subtle like oil in seed and batter in milk, like the one-hundredth part of the tip of a hair that is divided into hundred parts. Others hold it to be of the size of a thumb, others of a very wide expanse, and finally according to one view, it is infinite and immeasurable, being the same as the Brahman, that resides in the heart as well as everywhere in the universe. It is the Self of everything. It is not affected by anything of the world. Thus, the Ātman has become gradually free from corporeality, limitations, concreteness, attributes, destruction, and has become immaterial, sentient, abstract, attributeless, infinite and eternal; it has become one with the Ultimate Reality itself which is the source, sustainer, and absorber of all things of the world. In Carväkism Ātman is nothing but the living body itself and it exists only so long as the body functions. It is mortal like the body. The Sus'ikșita Carvākas believe that it is separate from the body, and it enjoys pleasure and pain. Buddhison does not admit the existence of an entity like Ātman. Buddhism is anātmavādin. It holds that the Self is a fictitious name given to a series of the states of consciousness which are everchanging and which arise out of the five aggregates (skandhas). Everything being momentary, there exists nothing like a permanent individual soul nor a substratum of the states of consciousness. According to Jainism --- Ātman is eternal,
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