Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 744

THE SIDDHANTA.
723
... ... which require a special organ are limited to the district occupied by the bodily instrument. In so far as the material subject by the limits of which vital activity in general is defined and conditioned increases or diminishes, the soul may be said in figurative language to experience virtual increase or diminution-an expansion or contraction in the sphere and range of its forces ; but there is no real quantitative increase in the substance of the soul itself."
The soul's 'diffusion in the body cannot be compared with any other case of diffusion in nature, for the soul is a simple substance and altogether devoid of parts. The difficulty that is felt in connection with the notion of expansion and contraction of such a simple entity lies in the fact that the human mind is almost exclusively adapted to deal with quantitative phenomena, and comes to grief wlien endeavouring to picture to itself the extension of that which is not composed of different elements and parts. But, as Maher S. J. urges, imagination is no test of possibi
lity.
The analogy of light may be employed to illustrate the point to a certain exterit; for as the sphere of light increases or diminishes, according as it is placed in a small room or a big hall, or by the employment of different kinds of covers, though they do not in any sense affect its diffusion quantitatively, so does the soul expand and contract to fill up different bodies.
That the conception of the living Force or Rhythm should be somewhat puzzling to the unphilosophical mind, is but only natural. For consciousness is not a thing like stone or metal, but a living and knowing substance, called Spirit by the ancients to distinguish it from matter. It is the subjective