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CHAPTER VI
JIVA OR THE THEORY OF S UL
In metaphysics, man through different ages and stages of philosophy has observed the self and the non-self, and has always tried to apotheosize one or the other, or to strike a sort of compromise between the two. He has formulated either one substance, like the Brahman of the Vedāntin or the matter of the materialist or else many substances, like the Sankhya, or else two substances. Jainism takes its stand upon a common-sense basis, which can be verified by everyone for himself. 1
As we have already seen, the Jaina thinkers divide the universe into two independent categories, the soul (jiva) and the non-soul (ajiva or non-jiva); these two substances are everlasting, uncreated and co-existing. This division is logical, perfect and unassailable.
The song of every religion has been : “Know thyself.” So the central subject of every philosophy which preaches self-realization as the goal of life is the “Self” or “Spirit" as it has been called by some. All Hindu philosophers admit the existence of the soul, but conceive it in different ways : some think that it is a substance, which is not itself censciousness, but which can become the substarate of cognition, activity and experience (Naiyáyikas and Prābhākara M{måmasakas); others, that it is the principle of self-consciousness itself (Sāmkhyas, Bhāțța Mimāṁsakas and Advaita Vedāntins). Some consider it to be in
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