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 152

148 :: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
contrary it is a clear admission of an infinite magnitude of the soul. A substantial reality must possess a finite or an infinite magnitude. Advaita Vedānta never aims to deny extension at all the levels of existence. Extension is affirmed of the objects, though at a lower level. It must be affirmed of the subject at the same level, because one individual becomes an object with respect to another individual. Thus Advaita Vedānta only partially opposes the view of an extended soul. The idea of one grand soul suggests more of an infinite dimension than inextension of the Brahma. Sometimes it is said that from the transcendental viewpoint Brahma is a spaceless entity. In this connections A.C. Mukerjee supports Sankara's view and maintains that “Objects of knowledge have temporal determinations, but that for which these temporal relations have a meaning cannot be in time. It is in this sense an eternal presence.”l Following the same chain of reasoning it can be added that the objects of knowledge have spatial determinations, but that for which these spatial relations have a meaning cannot be in space. It is in this sense a universal presence. Thus the timelessness and spacelessness of Brahma is maintained only from the transcendental view-point. The same argument may be further extended as 'The objects of knowledge have structural and functional determinations, but that for which these determinations have a meaning cannot itself have a structure and a function.' In this way not only temporarity, spatiality, structure and function is denied of Brahma, but in the same breath even existence can also be denied of it. Actually speaking the argument does not lead to Advaita Vedānta's absolutism of Brahma but to nihilism. The neti (not this) of Brahmādvaita never means that there is nothing positive in Brahma. Brahma to be positively something must be a substance, though an unchanging one. Then spatiality must be affirmed of it, though it may be an infinite spatiality.
If the soul is held to be extended, then the problem is what magnitude can be consistently assigned to it. Generally
1. A.C. Mukherjee: Nature of Self. p. 133