Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001263
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Devendramuni
Publisher: Tarak Guru Jain Granthalay
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 590
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 10 MB

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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
have been different theories of philosophy explaining the needs for the postulate of rebirth and the nature of the self in the cycle of birth and death.
NATURE OF SOUL ACCORDING TO JAINISM
Pandit Sukhalalji says that among those who believe that there are infinite number of independent souls which are all pure and perfect in their original nature the Jaina tradition is first and foremost. Jaina theory of soul is prominent and it has a special contribution to make to the theories of souls propounded in Indian thought. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) Jaina view is based on rationalistic ground and is very much amenable to reason, and (2) The Jaina theory of self has already established itself by the time of the 23rd Tirthaukara Pārsvanatha in the 8th century B. C. The theory crystalised during that period has largely remained the same in its But the Buddhist and Vedic theories were of non-self and have undergone major changes in the centuries that went by.
core.
According to Śramana tradition the nature of soul may be described as follows:
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1. Jīva is beginngless and endless. It has no beginning nor end. It is indestructible. It is eternal. From the point of view of substance the nature of jiva is pure and perfect and the same in all three phases of time-past, present and future. Therefore, it is eternal (nitya). From the point of view of modification jiva is anitya (temporary) because it undergoes various forms of empirical modifications. Therefore jiva is eternal but jiva as an empirical individual is not eternal.
2. Regarding the description of the empirical self (the saṁsārī jiva), we can say though milk and water, sesamum and the oil, and flower and its fragrance are related, as it seems the relation between the soul and body, but really the position of the soul is like a bird in the cage, like the sword in the sheath and like the sugar in a pitcher. The soul can become independent of the body.
3. One of the characteristic of jīva is contraction and expansion, that it pervades the body that it occupies whether big or small. In the body of the elephant, the soul pervades entire body of the elephant and if it is in the body of ant, it pervades the body of the