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The Jaina Theory of Liberation and the Non-absolute :: 233
karmas the soul's capacity for contraction and expansion also vanishes. Hence for a liberated soul there is only one changeless extension, i.e., the extension of the last body.
Eternality of the Liberated State
In pursuance of a similar line of reasoning it may be shown that a liberated soul can never return to mundane existence. Liberation is said to be possible on the attainment of those conditions which oppose the causes of mundane existence; and these conditions are self-determined. Once such obstructions are removed we find no reason why they should at all reappear. The Jaina also thinks that the transmigration of the soul was due to the presence of karmas. If were karmas that dragged the soul from one life to another. In the total absence of the karmas this transmigration should also come to an end. It means that once liberation is attained the soul must continue in its pure state for ever.
Dynamism in Liberation
The attainment of the perfect state by a soul is very likely to suggest that there is no dynamism in liberation. On the contrary the theory of substance holds that, if dynamism is suspended, the substance will lose its existence. In the process of gradual release from the karmas the soul was really developing its faculties, and it may be said to be evolving. When it was able to destroy the karmas totally, it must have attained the summit of self-evolution. Then there being no higher heights to be attained and a fall being impossible, the soul may be supposed to lose its dynamic nature. But the Jaina position is different from it. It is true that there is no higher state the soul may aspire to attain, but it is no proof of the suspension of its dynamism. The Jaina thinks that in liberation the change is not towards the higher but towards the similar. The modes that successively appear in liberation are so like each other that their comprehension is beyond ordinary knowledge. In nature
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| SR No. | 001617 |
| Book Title | Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism |
| 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 |