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 151

Structure of the Soul and Extension :: 147
in-case of its psyche, accepts the first three, and drops the last one. It must do so, because its structure has not yet attained the status of a substance. In this respect it adheres to the abstractive process of thinking. The process of abstraction takes place in such a way that the former abstractions look like facts of structure with respect to the latter ones. When our vision is limited to such abstractions only, the question of their spatiality does not arise. The complexes and dispositions themselves are the functions of some entity behind them, and, hence, in themselves, they cannot be held to be spatial. The mental structure which is based on complexes and dispositions must also be nonspatial. These abstractions must be ultimately dependent upon something substantially true. This substantial reality is the very foundation upon which the entire edifice of the mental structure is built. Just as the principle of vāsanā was reduced to the principle of the soul, so the principle of unity and integration of the mental structure must get transformed into the substance of the soul to provide a solid foundation for psychology. The position concerning the psyche which Mc Dougall has developed suggests the fourth aspect of the svacatuştaya of Jainism. Spatiality or possession of some magnitude is a necessary implication of existence which, in terms of Jaina philosophy, is a compendium of origination, decay and permanence, the characteristic of a substance. We have already seen that psychology has to presume something substantial like the psychoplasm as a substrate for the elements of the mental structure. This substrate being recognized that truth of the self or the soul with its spatiality follows like a corollary.
Nyāya, Sāmkhya and Vedānta on the Soul's Extension and Their Criticism
The ātman of the Nyāya and the puruṣa of the Sāṁkhya schools are all-pervasive categories. By this they must mean their presence everywhere in the universe. This can never mean a negation of extension in the soul, but on the