Studies in Jainism

SR No.: 006565
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 182
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

Page 158

THE CONCEPTION OF SOUL
149
the case of a gas-like-oxygen which fills up the whole of the space within different vessels, having small or large dimensions. The Jaina conception that the soul has a measure of its body can be compared with its similar conception in the Kauṣitaki Upaniṣad referred to above.
It should be noted that this Jaina conception of soul is viewed only from the practical point of view (vyavahāranaya). From the real standpoint the soul is viewed to occupy the whole universe. Upadhyaya Yasovijayaji, a great saint of the eighteenth century, has described it in Adhyātmasāra. He says that it is from the ordinary point of view that the soul has dimension and plurality. A jaundiced person due to the defects in his eyes perceives two moons instead of one, in the same way the man who has not realized the atman sees it as many. It is due to illusion that in relation to its material karmas, we call the atman as material, but in fact, it possesses neither form nor dimension; it is one unity (from the point of view of consciousness as one). It exists, it is consciousness, bliss and beyond all description.9
According to the Jaina school all existing souls are divided into two classes, the liberated (mukta) and the nonliberated (samsarin). The latter are either mobile (trasa) or immobile (sthavara). Further, the mobile ones are twosensed, three-sensed, four-sensed or five-sensed, possessing respectively the sense or senses of taste, smell, sight and
8.
9.
gfaufaufauti oftare ats oftarguit I पूरेइ हंदि लोगं बदुप्पएहसत्तण गुणोणं ॥ Acārānganiryukti, Agamodaya-samiti edition, p. 171.
यथा तैमिरिकश्वन्द्रमप्येकं मन्यते द्विधा । अनिश्चयकृतोन्मादस्तथात्मानमनेकधा ॥ arryafriciunzıcı yd zfa yu: 1 न रूपं न रसो गंधो न च स्पर्शो न चाकृतिः । यस्य धर्मा न शब्धो वा तस्य का नाम मूर्तता ॥ चैतन्यपरसामान्यात् सर्वेपामेकतात्मनाम् । आत्मा सत्यचिदानन्दः सूक्ष्मात्सूक्ष्मः परात्परः ॥ Adhyātmasāra, XVIII.