Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

SR No.: 001617
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 272
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Epistemology, Nyay, & Spiritual
File Size: 16 MB

Page 111

The Soul and Consciousness :: 107
have seen that consciousness does not stand only for conation and knowledge, but refers to all the special attributes of the soul. So consciousness cannot be held to be a faculty determining modes of conation and knowledge. For argument's sake let there be one common faculty behind conation and knowledge. It would yield only one mode, and conation and knowledge can be held to be the implications of the same mode. Then the aforesaid two implications of the same mode must be simultaneously found in all souls, mundane and liberate. So this view, in a way, amounts to Siddhasena's view of simultaneous occurrence of conation and knowledge. If consciousness is a single faculty of the soul, the conception of two distinct karmas, i.e., conationobscuring and knowledge-obscuring becomes superfluous, because every mode of the soul with respect to consciousness, whether determined by the former or the latter karma will distinctively imply what will be called conation and knowledge. The same difficulty has been pointed out by Brahmadeva in his commentary on the Dravyasangraha. Dr. N.M. Tatia mentions that the karma theory is one of the old tenets of Jainism,' and it gives two categories of karmas to obscure the faculties of conation and knowledge. Hence this theory may also be taken as a evidence against the non-distinction of conation and knowledge.
Brahamdeva's Solution of the Controversy
Brahmadeva gives a solution of the controversy. He attempts to reconcile the views of Nemicandra and Virasena. He explicitly refuses the view that generality is apprehended by conation and particularity by knowledge, for generality and particularity both constitute the identity of a real. He adopts the scripture-point of view (siddhāntābhiprāya) and the logic-point of view (tarkābhiprāya). From the former view point conation means the first attempt in the form of
1. N.M. Tatia: Studies in Jainism, p. 30 (footnote)