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

Page 76

The Jaina Theory of the Soul
refers to the sphere or extent of the influence that is intended. In the Pañcastikāyasära we read that just as a lotus hued ruby, when placed in a cup of milk, imparts its lustre to the milk, the soul imparts its lustre to the whole body.**
Jiva is characterized by upward motion. Nemicandra describes the pure soul as possessing urdhvagati. In the Pañcāstikāyasāra it is said, when the soul is freed from all impurities it moves upwards to the end of Loka." For Plato, the soul was above all, the source of motion. It is only the self that moves. In the Phaedrus, Socrates says in his second speech, "The soul is immortal for that which is ever in motion is immortal." The self never ceases to move and it is the fountain and the beginning of motion to all that moves. The movement of the soul in samsara is due to its association with Karman; but by nature it has the upward motion which it adopts beyond which no movement is possible in pure space with is devoid of the medium for motion. The Jaina conception of the soul as possessing urdhvagati appears to be more an ethical expediency than a metaphysical principle or a psychological fact.
All these attributes belong to the nature of every soul and they are clearly seen if the Jivas are pure and free. However, most of the Jivas are not pure and free. They are contaminated by some foreign elements which veil their purity and perfection. The foreign element is Karman, very fine matter, imperceptible to the senses, and which enters into the soul and causes great changes. The souls are then involved in the wheel of samsara. They become samsarins.
III The samsari jīvas are classified on the basis of various principles, like the status and the number of sense organs possessed by them. They are the sthavara jīvas, immovable souls. This is the vegetable kingdom. Sri J. C. Bose has pointed out that the vegetable world has capacity for experience. They
Pañcastikāyasāra, 33.
61
42. 43. Ibid, 79,