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Istopadeśa - The Golden Discourse
एकोऽहं निर्ममः शुद्धो ज्ञानी योगीन्द्रगोचरः । GEM: FATIGT HAT HT: Hasfu Hafen 11
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I am one, without infatuation, pure, all-knowing, and capable to be known by the Master Ascetics. All attachments, internal and external, are totally foreign to my nature.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The soul in its pure nature is recognized to be entirely free from karmic shackles and yet in the worldly state it is always found in association with karmic matter from beginningless time. Due to the operation of deluding karmas, it has got so intimately attached to karmic matter and impure thought-activities that, oblivious to reality, it is absorbed in mundane pleasures. A soul which is absorbed in right belief, knowledge and conduct is 'svasamaya' - the real Self, and the one degraded to an empirical ego enmeshed in karmic conditions is ‘parasamaya'– the impure self. The challenge before the man is to reach to the beautiful Ideal that is the real Self, the sublime reality of every soul. Recognition of the true nature of the soul, therefore, is the most desirable thing in this grand pilgrimage to the land of peace and purity.
Conduct, faith, and knowledge have been said to be the attributes of the soul from the empirical point of view (vyavahāra naya). From the transcendental point of view (niscaya naya) the soul has no compartmentalized knowledge, conduct or faith, it just has pure consciousness. The empirical point of view does not reveal the
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