________________
kendra
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Vaişpava Saints of ....
633
with the body and one feels that it is fair or black, blind or deaf, old or young, etc. In fact, all the external changing qualities belong to the body which is mutable and perishable as it is formed as a complex out of the thirty-six elements. But jñānes vara distinguishes the soul from the body and says that the soul is mirrored in the body as the sun in a lake. The body is subject to Karma and it revolves on the wheel of birth and death. It has a temporary existence. On the contrary, the soul is a sentient principle (cit), it is pure, eternal, and beginningless. It is partless, formless; it is neither joy nor joyless. It is the silent witness of the changing states of the mind and the body. It is above all these changing states and is of the nature of consciousness.
The Self or the Brahman is not different from the world; the tree with all its branches, leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits is nothing else but the original seed unfolded; similarly, the Self is identical with the material world and the jivas. The world and the souls are only the manifestations of the original Self which is also termed as 'God '3 The jiva is like an ornament of the Self or Brahman which is like gold from which it is prepared. The wise man thus sees the real basic identity of the jiva and the Brahman or God. Jñānes'vara thus regards that the underlying cause of which the world is an expression is alone real, because it is eternal and all other changing
1 Jnanes'vari, XIII. 151-156.
Ibid. : XIII. 1095-1124. 3 Ibid. : X. 98-118.
For Private And Personal
