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

Page 299

Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
generated from the Non-soul. Nor can we think that the soul generates from substances which are of the same nature with it (Sajātīya); for, these causes must have 'soul-hood' (i.e. must themselves be souls) in order that they may be of the same nature with the soul; it then comes to this that soul generates from the souls,-which according to the Nyaya thinkers is an unreasonable theory. For, how can more than one soul operate in one and the same body? Even admitting it to be possible, how can the effect of one cause-soul be combined with the effect of another causesoul? A pitcher has parts; when the parts separate, the pitcher is destroyed. In the same way, if the soul be supposed to be constituted of parts, the soul must be said to be subject to destruction.
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JAINA REPLY
In reply to the above Nyaya criticism, the Jaina's put forward their theory that in some respects, the soul may be supposed to have parts, and be an effect-although it has neither parts nor is an effect in other respects. A pitcher is made up of limbs, all of the same nature; but the soul is not an effect like that. It is undoubtedly an effect. But what is the meaning of an effect? A substance is an effect which assumes a new form by giving up the old. The Effect-hood of the soul consists in its undergoing varied modifications. Viewed from this point, the soul appears to be impermanent in some sense. It, however, continues to be substantially unchanged, although it undergoes constant modifications. For this reason, the soul is undivided and eternal and a homogenuous whole, -although looked through its modifications, it has parts (i.e. varied modes) and is an effect.
ANOTHER NYAYA OBJECTION TO THE JAINA THEORY
Another objection of the Naiyayika's to the Jaina doctrine that the soul is of the same extent as the Body is that in that case, the soul becomes a substance having a form (Murta); now, if the soul have a form it cannot enter into