Samayasara

SR No.: 001607
Original Sutra Author: Kundkundacharya
Author: Hiralal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1944
Total Pages: 370
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Philosophy
File Size: 8 MB

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SAMAYASARA
called Ajiva in Jaina metaphysics. This term Ajīva includes Pudgala or matter, Akāśa or space and two other principles called Dharma and Adharma. Principles of equilibrium and motion which are peculiar to Jaina Physics.
The four categories which are grouped in the Ajiva class are distinctly non-spiritual and hence incapable of consciousness or thought. They are grouped under Acetana. All Ajiva categories are called Acetana. It is only the Cetana entity, Jiva, that is associated with the consciousness. This consciousness or thought which is the characteristic of Jiva may manifest in three distinct psychological activities of cognition. The process of knowing, emo tion-the process of feeling pleasure or pains, and conation--the process of activity culminating in voluntary activity. All Jivas therefore are associated with these three different forms of psychic activity of consciousness and are technically called Cetana Paryāyas--awareness of the environment, hedonic reaction to the objects so cognised and the characteristic activity manifesting as a result of this feeling of pleasure or pain. This Jiva is intrinsically the Knower, the Enjoyer and the Actor. Every soul according to its own status in the course of evolution is thus capable of being in its own way the knower, the enjoyer and the actor-Jñātā, Bhokta and Kartă. This process of knowing may be limited according to the biological conditions of the individual being. Knowledge may be wider or narrower according to the scale of evolution. The environment and knowledge expected of a lower animal will be much narrower than that of a human being and the environ. ment and knowledge of a cultured individual will be very insignificant when compared to the knowledge of a person who by yoga or tapas acquired supersensual knowledge whose extensity would be very great. Thus the growth of knowledge is conditioned by the spiritual growth of the individual soul or Jiva. In the case of Mokşa Jiva the knowledge becomes infinite comprising within itself all the three worlds, when he becomes the knower par-excellence who acquires the nomenclature of Sattvajña, the Omniscient and whose extensity is limitless in space and powers. This Paramātma is jñāni, par-excellence. This Jaina conception of Jiva though fundamentally identical with the concept of Jiva in other Indian systems of thought, still differs from the other view in certain respects. For example, Sankhya Puruşa which corresponds with the Jiva of the Jaina metaphysics is slightly different from the Jaina concept of Jiva. The Sāükhyas thought that Puruşa is a Cetana entity, but Puruşa is the knower and the enjoyer, Jñātā and Bhoktā but he is not active. He is not a Karta. All activities in the concrete world according to Sankhya school is associated with body, the material entity which is called Praksti in the Sikhya school and which is called Pudgala in the Jaina school of thought. Since all activities associated with nonthinking Prakrtis in Sarikhya system, the Cetana entity Puruşa is not connected with any kind of activity. Then why should he be responsible for the