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 199

Jaina Eschatology :: 195
existence; both of them stand in need of each other's contribution to effect the worldly life of the soul. Kundakunda conceives this bondage in its three aspects. “Karma-pudgala is bound with karma-pudgala on account of the qualities of smoothness and roughness of the karma molecules. The jīva is said to be bound on account of its impure manifestations like attachment etc. But the union of the soul and karmapudgala is material-cum-spiritual, and it is the copresence of the two in the same space."1 According to the Jaina this union of the soul and the karma-pudgala represents the structure of the wordly self. Modern psychology confines its vision only to one out of these three aspects, i.e., only to the soul's capacity for impure function. The karma psychology probes deep to get at the concomitane associate of the structure of the self in the form of the karma-śarīra. The Jaina, by allowing scope for all the three types of bondage, saves his position from the fallacy of onesidedness.
The Cover of Karmas and Their Ghāti (Destructive) and Aghāti (Non-destructive) Types
This bondage of the soul by the karmas is generally understood to be a sort of covering; and a similar fact is suggested by the nomenclature used in case of the first two classes of karmas i.e., the jñān-avaraṇīya (knowledge-obscuring) and the darsanā-vāraṇīya (conation-obscuring). Just as the clouds cover the light of the sun, so also the karmas cover the faculties of the jiva.? Akalanka says: “The conscious jīva does not shine on account of karmas like a precious stone which has been defiled (viddha) by dirt."3 It may suggest that behind the cover of karmas the soul remains unaffected by them; that is, the substence of the soul suffers no change on account of the karmas. This will mean that the soul under the
1. Kundakunda: Pravacana-sära, II, verse 85 2. Devendra Sūri: Karmagrantha (Hindi), II, p. 12 3. Akalanka: Nyāyaviniscaya, III, verse 23