________________
CREATION.
Jain Education International
present in consciousness. "To remember the experiences of another," says Maher, " would be to remember having been somebody else: in other words, to simultaneously affirm and deny one's own identity, a pure and absurd contradiction." Recollection, then, would be impossible for a consciousness which is constantly generated from the physical matter of the brain, and which does not, therefore, persist through life.
Again, if consciousness be regarded as a secretion of matter, it must be a composite substance, in which case the consciousness an individual has of himself can only be the result of a combination of an immense number of consciousnesses. But this is contradicted by the fact that nobody feels himself as many. As to this, Mr. J. C. Chatterji, the author of 'The Hindu Realism,' observes:
"Not only does an individual not feel himself as many, but if really many consciousnesses formed one individual consciousness, then the body would often be either torn to pieces or absolutely inactive. For, it is comparatively a very rare thing to find a large number of conscious entities acting together absolutely with one will and purpose. They generally have different wills and purposes of their own, and if the different members and parts of the body had each a separate consciousness of its own, and at the same time were not subordinate to some other and central consciousness, it is pretty certain that they would often disagree and try to carry on their different wills and purposes; and the result would be a complete disintegration of the body. Or, if the body did not disintegrate, then there would be an absolute deadlock of activity, inasmuch as the varying wills and purposes of the different parts of the body would neutralize one another. But, as neither this kind of disintegration nor stagnation is ever observed, we must conclude that it is not the separate consciousnesses of the different parts of the body which produce the one individual consciousness."
Besides, if there were many consciousnesses in the
67
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org