The Soul-Essence

Truth. No clever wordplay original: "verbal jugglery", no pious deception of oneself or others will save a person from error and harm if this Central Truth is lost sight of. All politics, ethics, laws, and economics will be engulfed in pitch-black original: "stygian", chaotic darkness if the human mind—the soul—ever loses or weakens its hold on this First Fact of Life.

On the other hand, if this beacon-light is kept in view, nothing in the world can delude us for long or very deeply. Our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures, our illness and health, the births and deaths of relatives and friends, victory and defeat, prosperity or adversity—all these will be easily and instinctively referred to the Central Guide and dealt with in their proper perspective. All our worldly valuations depend upon our perspective original: "angle of vision". Ugliness is simply beauty in the wrong place or seen from the wrong angle. High treason is seen as patriotism from the wrong viewpoint. The State and politics often create chaos in an attempt to save the country and its citizens from disorder and disruption. Marriage sanctifies apparent monogamy, yet not infrequently becomes an effective cloak for mental and even physical polygamy. Trade and commerce, intended for the natural and equal distribution of necessities and useful goods, often result in extravagant waste or the hoarding of such things in the hands of a wealthy few, leading to the agonizing misery of the poverty-stricken many. Even religion, the symbol and mantle of God, has cloaked "Satan" more often than it has the Everlasting Light against whom Satan eternally rebelled.

Indeed, there is nothing good or desirable in the world that is not, to some extent, locked in the arms of its opposite. Truly original: "verily", extremes literally meet. Life means death. Death breeds life. The extremely rich are extremely poor. Those with no possessions are the richest. The crown of thorns is always the real, ultimate adornment. The cup of misery is the only joy-giving nectar. Purusha Sanskrit: the eternal, pure consciousness or "Self" and Prakriti Sanskrit: nature, matter, or the primal motive force are inextricably interlocked. Brahma Sanskrit: the ultimate reality or the absolute and Maya Sanskrit: illusion or the deceptive appearance of the physical world lie mingled together; no one can say which is which. There is only one way out of the den of this Duessa a reference to a character from Edmund Spenser’s "The Faerie Queene" who represents falsehood and duplicity. It is to recognize the reality of this den and also the flowery glade of real roses outside. Until that rose glade is reached, the dark den must be tolerated and regulated.

In short, there is no aspect or detail of practical life where the teachings of Shri Kunda Kunda a famous 1st-century CE Jain philosopher and monk known for his works on the nature of the soul and reality will not be of immense use. Everywhere, his teachings will lay bare the deepest truth regarding the matter at hand and provide the most clear and calm guidance for handling it.