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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accept the incorporeal emancipated soul as sentient. Though the soul and ākāśa, etc. have incorporeality in common, still sentiency is a peculiar attribute of the soul, similarly motion or activity also can be its peculiar attribute and there should be no objection to this (1845).
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That the soul has activity can also be demonstrated by inference. The soul is active, because like the potter, it is a doer or because it is an enjoyer. Or the soul is active, because movements of the body are directly perceived as in the case of a machine-man (1846).
If it is urged that the effort of atman is the cause of the bodily movement, but not the activity of atman and hence the atman cannot be shown to be active, the reply is that even effort is not found in inactive things e. g. ether or space and so if we want atman to make efforts for the movement of the body it itself must be active. Further if the incorporeal effect is the cause of bodily movement, what is it that makes this effort capable of being the cause of bodily movement? And if this effort can be such irrespective of any other force why cannot the atman by itself be the cause of bodily movement? It is not necessary to bring in effort. If it is further argued that some unseen (adrsta) is the cause of bodily movement and not the atman which is inactive, this hypothesis should be examined. Is this adṛsta corporeal or not? If it is incorporeal there is no reason why the incorporeal atman should not be accepted as the cause of bodily movement. If it is corporeal it cannot be anything other than the karmic body. And this karmic body can be the cause of bodily movement only if it itself has movement, not otherwise and there must be some cause of this movement of its and so on ad infinitum. If it is said that this karmic body has movement by its essential nature, in that case, even the external body can have movement just naturally and it is not necessary to recognise the existence of even the karmic body. But this position is not acceptable because the external body is insentient. Further we know that that which is spontaneous
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