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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
aspect of Thought, the living Essence of life. The question, why should a substance perform all these functions ?- is inadmissible. Philosophy is only concerned with finding out things as they exist, and not with creating them to suit the whims of its interlocutors. One might just as well ask : why should matter be inert, space extended, time fleeting, and so forth? The point is not whether the mind can picture a simple substance as an extended entity, but whether the soul does or does not perform the functions which have been ascribed to it, and as to this there can be no doubt but that its 'diffusion in the body is absolutely essential for the reasons given.
Vedanta describes the jiva as the pratibimba (reflection) of the Self, but the description is in no sense accurate, since a pratibimba is only the effect of a number of luminous rays thrown on a surface and reflected back, like the reflection of the sun in water. The jiva, not being an effect, like the reflected image, cannot be a reflection of anything, but is an independent reality existing by itself.
The idea that the jiva is the pratibimba of Brahman can be true only in so far as it has the potentiality of becoming Brahman, not otherwise. But in so far as the jiva is a centre of thought, or idea-rhythm, it is the builder of its own form, which it makes according to the paramount tendencies of its character, or disposition. Hence the body which it builds for itself, is the reflection of its mind. Every creature, in this sense, is the pratibimba of its own character ; but it is impossible to carry this principle any further, except in the sense
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