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 203

Jaina Eschatology :: 199
the āyus (age-determining) karma may be grouped under the physiological class. The gotra (status-determining) karma belongs to the environmental class. The antarāya (powerobscuring) karma has generally been described as obstructing the procurement of things, hence in can also be grouped in the last named class.
The Psychical Class of Karmas and the Self of the Jaina Psychology
The first enumerated class of karmas, i.e., the psychical ones is the basis of the karma psychology. C.R. Jain observes: "karmas (destiny) only act through the disposition, by altering and modifying the impulses.”] There is a very intimate relation between the karmas and the psychical structure of the self. The accumulated stock of karmas just modifies the potentiality of the jīva by generating a capacity to give rise to different dispositions and complexes. In this way the karmas contribute towards the structure of the mind which endures and abides in time. When the karmas attain an operative stage, the soul's capacity for different dispositions and complexes gives rise to various psychological phenomena on their functional side. The karma psychology, thus, provides a concrete basis for both the structural and the functional facts. Besides it marks a deeper insight into the structure of the mundane self as a combination of the soul and the karma-pudgala which alone, according to Jaina philosophy, makes the existence of the psyche possible. Dr. Freud holds that the ultimate basis of his psychology is the sex-energy which he calls the libido. The Jaina thinks that the sex-energy is only a form of the soul's capacity when overpowered by the deluding karma. It is true that the psychical functions can be analysed into the component functions which colour each other. So, if Dr. Freud could see nothing but sex-energy in the structure of the self, he was not totally wrong. It was something like seeing the soul
1. C.R. Jain: Jaina Psychology, p. 63