________________
RECONCILIATION.
1017
God, and is, for that reason, absurd. Besides, how could that wbich has no existence whatsoever ever come into existence? If we say that God made the idea, the question again arises as to the volitional or thoughtless nature of the process of making, which has already formed the subject of discussion. The last loop-hole of escape may be sought in the statement that the idea did not exist, but that God knew it somehow. This is but another way of throwing up the brief, as the sense of the expression itself indicates the absurdity of the proposition ; for it means neither more nor less than this that the idea had no existence, and yet it existed in the consciousness of God--which is ridiculous. The denial of the past existence of the soul only aims at the root of the theory of transmigration, but it is evident that only confusion of thought results from such a course. It is thus clear that the followers of Islam fall into error when they try to fight shy of the theory of re-incarnation which is a philosophical truth.
The true sense of the teaching, 'soul is by the command of God,' thus, is not that God created the soul at a particular point of time, in the history of duration, but that the differentiating principle of the jivic essence, i.e., pure Consciousness, is the sense,' or purport, or 'idea-ness.' That this is the true sense is further borne out by the text itself which is not, 'soul is the command of God,' but 'soul is by the command of God,' which clearly means nothing if not that the Essence of Existence is seated distributively among the 'ideas,' i.e., souls. In this sense the doctrine is not only a philosophical truth, but is, also, in perfect agree
92
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org