Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

SR No.: 001619
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Religion, & Epistemology
File Size: 8 MB

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Reals in the faina Metaphysics of shrine-worship? This is Akstābhyāgama or fruition of what was not done. The Jaina's point out that the Soul-denying theory of the Buddhists, practically, contradicts the doctrine of Karma—the theory that every act is sure to be followed by an effect and that no effect can come out which was not preceded by an act.
VEDĀNTA DOCTRINE OF THE NON-DUAL BRAHMA
Although the Jaina system agrees with the Vedānta in refuting the Soul-denying sensationist theory of the Buddhists, there are, however, very material differences between the two systems. In the Vedānta, the real existence of the 'Jivātmā's' or the finite Souls is denied; the Atmā is said to the one and secondless,—the non-dual Brahma. The Vedānta theory is that the infinite number of finite Souls are but the modifications (Pariņāma) or the aspects (Vivarta) of the non-dual Brahma which is the only reality. The thinkers of this Advaita-vāda school contend that one Paramātmā is present in, permeates and informs all the finite souls and that there is no other Soul or reality besides it. The Vedānta philosophy is somewhat similar in this respect to the pantheistic systems of the West.
JAINA CRITICISM OF THE VEDĀNTA THEORY
The Jaina philosophy, on the contrary, does not subscribe to the extreme monism of the Vedānta. According to the Jaina thinkers the Jiva's or the Souls are infinite in number and every Soul is different from the other in some respects. If the Souls were not mutually exclusive and different and were but one and the same, one might have expected to find the happiness, the misery, the bondage or the emancipation of all the Souls with the happiness, the misery, the bondage or the emancipation of one Soul respectively. The varied conditions of the Souls have led the Sāmkhya philosophers to reject the monistic position of the Vedānta and admit the reality of many Souls. The Jaina's also maintain that the soul is different in each body' and