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 191

Jaina Eschatology :: 187
affected it would itself be changeable.”1 A similar inconsistency is involved in the conception of māyā and Brahma in Advaita Vedanta. “If one eternal consciousness is the one reality, there cannot be a distinction of false knowledge and right knowledge, bondage and emancipation. There being only one reality there is no right knowledge which need be attained."2 C.R. Jaina observes: “Vedānta now takes refuge behind the nature of māyā, which it describes as inconceivable and for ever beyond the reach of the intellect. But it is really tantamount to throwing up the brief, for no one has a right to preach what is inconceivable to him. Now, if the Vedāntist maintains that he understands what he is talking about, māyā ceases to be incomprehensible, but if he says that he has not been able to comprehend it, then he is talking of things which he does not understand and has no right to be heard." From the above discussion it may be concluded that the principle of limitation of the soul's powers cannot be unreal like māyā, nor can it leave the soul absolutely unaffected, nor can it be identical with the nature of the soul itself. Hence it must be alien to the constitution of the soul, but in some way able to effect the limitations of its powers. “Karma, thus, is a force which binds the soul to the consequences of its good or bad actions."4 Being a force the karma must inhere in some substance, or as C.R. Jaina thinks "it would be ridiculous to maintain that a thing could be affected by that which has no substantiveness whatsoever."5 Therefore the actions and desires to effect any change in us must transform themselves into a medium of homogenous nature with our physical constitution itself....Psychology shows that no desire, no feeling, no conation passes the threshold of our mind, without in some way, modifying the neural processes... the actioncurrents of human thought and will leave vestiges on its
1. Das Gupta: Indian Idealism, p. 141 2. Ibid., p. 141 3. C.R. Jain: Key of Knowledge, p. 485 4. C.R. Jain: Key of Knowledge, p. 564 5. Ibid., p. 531