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CHAPTER II
EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL
Although the Buddhistic literature does not contain an explicit description of the soul, still, if it is minutely searched, it will be found to contain enough to show that the Buddhistic conception of the nature of the soul is the same as is described in the Jain literature.
We have shown in the preceeding Chapter that the nirvana of the Buddhists is not annihilation, not total non-existing, but it is something positive. When it is something, the next point to decide is whether it is matter without consciousness or something possessed of inherent consciousness. It cannot be matter; it is not a material substance devoid of consciousness because nirvâna is attainable only by one who has right enlightenment, through Prajna, self analysis, or self discernment. It must therefore be a conscious substance. Rupa (form), sanjna (sensation), vedana (feeling), samskâra (contact) and vijnâna (impure consciousness) are the causes of mundane wanderings. When these causes are all destroyed, what remains is nothing else than the pure Self or the Soul. Whatever qualifications of the pure soul are mentioned in the Jain Scriptures, are the same as are in the Buddhist scriptures attributed to the state of nirvâna. Nirvâna is synonymous, identical with the pure soul. As in the Buddhist
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