Jaina View of Life

SR No.: 001622
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 260
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Discourse
File Size: 14 MB

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Jaina View of Life
characterized by suddha caitanya and bliss. It is free from all sense of otherness. It has discriminative knowledge. This conscious self is antarātman in the samyagdsşti guņasthana. The pure and perfect self which is free from the impurities of Karma is the paramātman. It is characterized by perfect cognition and knowledge. It is freed and is a Siddha. This Paramātman is jnanamaya and is pure consciousness. It cannot be known by the sense. It has no indriyas and no manas. From the noumenal point of view, these are the attributes of the soul.86 The Jaina approach to the problem is metaphysical. It contains elements of psychological investigation; but the language is the language of metaphysics. Modern psychologists, especially the rational psychologists, stopped at psychological analysis and explained the process of realizing the pure nature of the self from the empirical stage to the stage of pure ego. But the transcendental self is not the subject of psychology. William James has said that states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. , Metaphysics or theology may prove the existence of the soul; but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous." 88
Jainism refers to the size of the soul. Although souls are not of any definite size, they contract and expand according to the size of the body in which they are incorporated for the time being. The soul is capable of adjusting its size to the physical body, as the lamp placed in a large or small room illuminates the whole space of the room. Nemicandra describes it as the phenomenal characteristic of the soul. From the noumenal point of view it is said to exist in innumerable pradeśas.$? In respect of the elasticity of the soul, Jainism differs from the other schools of Indian thought. As Jacobi
35. Paramātmaprakāśa, 31. 36. James (William) : Briefer Course, p. 203. 37. Dravyasamgraha, 10,