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 119

The Soul and Consciousness :: 115
subjectively, conation and knowledge must be held to occur simultaneously even in mundane souls. In the omniscient souls, there being nothing to obscure the two faculties, both conation and knowledge are free to have their full manifestations. Then the effort towards knowing becomes natural, and conation, in a way, may be perceived as being absorbed in knowledge, thus leading to theory of nondistinction between conation and knowledge.
The Problem of Objectless Consciousness
Now the concept of objectless consciousness may be considered. Akalanka has distinguished between two forms of consciousness, i.e., the knowledge-form and the knowableform. The knowledge-form is like the surface of a mirror, when it has nothing to reflect. Haribhadra also thinks:” Knowledge is of the nature of enlightenment. When it is objectless, it enlightens itself.”2 This leads to the conception of objectless consciousness. Consciousness, when it is prehending something, is intelligible as having a form agreeing with the form of the object prehended. The problem is whether the Jaina theory of the substance of the soul will admit of the possibility of objectless consciousness. If it is an objectless consciousness, it would mean that it is a consciousness which prehends nothing. This means that the function of the soul with respect to consciousness is suspended. Consciousness must manifest every moment of its existence, and it can manifest only by being conscious of something. It is also implied by the Jaina theory of substance that every mode concerning an attribute comes into existence by exhausting the entire capacity related with the attribute, there is no residue of a capacity over and above the mode it has determined. Thus every mode of consciousness is an embodiment of the total capacity behind it. The entire capacity gets actualized in the mode. So consciousness is
1. Akalanka: Rajavārtiaka, p. 34 2. Haribhadra: Sāstrvārtāsamuccaya, verse 19