Gandharavada

SR No.: 006739
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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child's body could not be the previous gross body for it has already perished and cannot therefore be the cause of a child's body. Karmic body is the cause of a child's body. The karmic body cannot subsist by itself; it must have something of which it could be the body, which it could embody, and this something is the soul which persists from one life to another. Thus, again, it can be seen, the body and the soul are not identical (1663).
(vi) Child's pleasure, pain, etc. must be preceded by other pleasure, pain, etc., because they are of the nature of experience; like our present pleasure, pain. These pleasure, pain, etc, preceding the child's pleasure, pain, etc., must be distinct from the previous body for they persist even when the previous body has perished and become the cause of the child's pleasure, pain, etc.. Being qualities, they must have a substratum and that is atman;-which again proves that the atman is distinct from the body (1664).
(vii) Body and karma are related to each other as cause-effect and their continuum is beginningless, like that of seed-sprout. If karma and body are related to each other as instrument and effect, there must be some agent over and above these to manipulate them, as the potter is there with respect to stick and jar. The atman is this agent (1665-66).
[For other arguments demonstrating the existence of ātman see gathās 1567-1570].
Mabāyīra anticipates an argument from someone with a Buddhist bent of mind to the effect that the soul may be distinct from the body; yet being momentary like it, it perishes along with it and hence there is no sense ultimately in establishing its existence as something independent of the body. Mahāvīra's reply is that everything in the world is not momentary; The basic substance is eternal, only its modes are non-eternal or even momentary. Hence the soul need not be regarded as perishing along with the body. It remembers its previous existence and hence could not have perished with the previous body. A man can remember in youth or old age