जिनवाणी | भक्तामर स्तोत्र

According to Jainism consciousness or awareness is the essential quality of each individual soul. By itself, a soul does not require any external means to gain knowledge because knowledge is inherent in its essential nature and by that it has omniscience or the all-knowing awareness without the need to depend upon perception or cognition. Knowledge does not arise because of perception or mental activity. It exists in itself, whether we know or not and whether we perceive things or not. In other words, the world is real, not an illusion. However, in a state of bondage, such knowledge becomes covered by the impurity of karma and remains inaccessible to the souls. Thereby the souls lose their omniscience temporarily and rely upon limited means and intermediate sources such as the mind and the senses to gain knowledge and make sense of their experiences and existence. In this condition, beings gain the knowledge of the world sequentially first through perceptions and then through intel...