Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 142

128 Harmless Souls
Returning to the Pravacanasāra, we come again to the crucial question (at 2.81), how can the immaterial soul be bound by material karman? The fact that this question is being asked at all is highly revealing of the shift in doctrinal emphasis, one which, as we shall see, entails or accompanies a shift in practice. For according to standard Jaina doctrine there is no need to make such a query, since it is an existential fact - a 'given' - that the jiva has been entrapped in matter from beginningless time. As we have noted above, and as P.S. Jaini points out, the Jaina envisions his soul's 'involvement with the material universe' as having had no beginning. Furthermore, he 'believes it incorrect to imagine that the soul was once pure but later became defiled. It has always been impure ... !8 Thus, the received doctrine points to a question which is more practical than theoretical, viz. how can what is impure be made pure?
If, however, you try to account for the fact that the jiva is, or appears to be bound, first you must assume some primal or 'original' state in which it is not bound, and then attempt to show what is demanded by this particular question (Pravacanasāra 2.81), namely, how is it that the pure can become, or appear to be, impure? This is easy enough to answer when the two have the same ontological basis (a white sheet can be covered in mud), but when they have no such common ground, one being material and the other not, then a logically satisfactory answer such as might silence an opponent is going to be much harder to formulate. As the Tattvadīpikā (on 2.81) puts it: with embodied, material substances (mūrtayor ... pudgalayor) which have rūpa, etc., mutual bondage due to particular touch (i.e. to the state of being smooth or rough / sticky or dry (snigdha or rūkşa]) is recognised;9 but how can the ātman, being incorporeal (amūrta), and so without
8 JPP p. 107.
9 snigdha-rūkşatva-sparśaviseșād-anyonyabandho 'vadhāryate - TD on 2:81.