Jainism a Theistic Philosophy

SR No.: 006918
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishna A Gosavi
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2012
Total Pages: 358
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

Page 117

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION: COROLLARY....
101
number of space-points (pradeśas) remains unchanged regardless of the area into which these points must be accommodated. This is analogous to a piece of cloth, the total material of which is the same whether it is folded or spread out that.
Another problem with vibhu theory of Hindu doctrine has some difficulty in explaining the limitation of soul's experiences. If the soul is in fact at all the time everywhere, how does it come to undergo the experience of only one individual being at a time? Explanation to this was deal with by a postulation of the so-called subtle body (sūkşma-śarīra) and so forth."0
The philosophical views of Brahmanical philosophy regarding rebirth processes are compared here with the Jaina views.
According to Brahmanical rebirth description, which is a kind of biological, soul after leaving human body dwells in a ghostly form (preta), for some twelve days, in a transition mode. Thereafter, the son of the deceased performs rituals, which frees the soul from ghostly state, and then it travels upward to the “realm of fathers” called pitr-loka where it remains for some time. Soul then eventually brought back to earth with rain and then it enters the food chain through absorption by a plant and finally eaten by man by way of fruits of that plant." Upon copulation of man with woman, the soul then enters into the womb where its new body grows and so the entire process begins once more. Here the karma determine as to which potential father will eat which plant, thus guaranteeing the soul a set of circumstances appropriate to its prior experience.
Jaina texts make absolutely no mention whatsoever of how a soul actual enters the body of the mother-to-be. It is said only that
30 Samkhyakārikä of Isvarakrsna, 40 'Paul Deussen, The System of Vedānta, New York, 1973, P- 357-398