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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Moksa
forms that it assumes are temporary and transient, they are perishable because they are formed out of perishable matter. The indwelling Spirit is not bound by these forms which it assumes. The Maitrayani Upanisad describes this idea thus — “Verily, this Soul ( Ātman), poets declare — wanders here on earth, from body to body, unovercome, as it seems, by the bright or the dark fruits of action. He, who, on account of his unmanifestness, subtility, imperceptibility, incomprehensibility, and Selflessness is (apparently) unabiding and a doer in the unreal--he truly is not a doer, and he is abiding. Verily, he is pure, steadfast and unswerving stainless, unagitated, desireless, fixed like a spectator and Self-abiding. As an enjoyer of righteousness he covers himself (ātmānam) with a veil made of qualities (but he remains fixed
-yea-he remains fixed."1 Similar is a passage that runs in the śvetāsvatara Upanişad about the Self assuming bodies--"whoever has qualities (guņa, distinctions) is the doer of deeds that bring recompense; and of such action surely he experiences the consequence; undergoing all forms, characterized by the three qualities, treading the three paths, the Individual self roams about according to its deeds."2
The earthly existence and the various earthly deeds are not worth-pursuing according to the Upanisads. They contend that these Karmas or deeds are the results of ignorance (avidya). A man performs all these deeds and experiences, pleasure and pain as
1 Maitrāyani Up. 2.6. Tr. Hume, p. 417. 2 S'vét. Up. 5.7. Tr, Hume, p. 407.
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