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 223

Jaina Eschatology :: 219
the karma-forces. From the synthetic point of view the two types of forces yield a single resultant in the form of mundane personalities. From the analytical point of view the two components of the mundane personalities can be distinguished. Greater magnitude of one or the other signifies freedom or determinism. Actually speaking the personality of an individual is beyond both determinism and freedom. It does not negate them but transcends them. It is why neither determinism nor freedom is able to give its full description. On the application of the Jaina nayavāda the same entity can be seen as determined or free, because it smells out determinism and indeterminism at the same time. Jayasena in the commentry of the Pravacanasāra describes the soul from the deterministic (niyati) and indeterministic (aniyati) view-points. Hence according to the Jaina determinism and indeterminism are partial truths valid only when appropriate reference-systems are defined. The karmas work in such a way that they allow freedom for the members involved in the process; and freedom is so effected that it does not oppose karma-determinism. In conclusion it may be added that “Necessitarianism quarrels with libertarianism and libertarianism is not prepared to agree with necessitarianism, but the doctrine of karma quarrels with none, since it agrees with both to an intelligible
extent.”2
The Jaina on Moral Accountability
The Jaina karma-determinism presents no moral difficutly. The problem of moral accountability is well solved only when there is karma-determinism of the above type. In absolute determinism moral accountability becomes unjustified. In absolute indeterminism the appearance of the action itself becomes impossible. Moral accountability requires both determinism and freedom. “...there is nothing
1. Cf: Pravacana sāra (Com. by Jayasen), p. 371 2. M.L. Mehta: Jaina Psychology, p. 8