Samayasara OR Nature of Self

SR No.: 011119
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 406
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 139

CXXXV11
SAMAYASARA
three different forms of psychic activity of consciousness and are technically called Chetana Paryayas-awareness of the environment, hedonic reaction to the objects so cognised and the characteristic activity manifesting as a result of this feeling of pleasure or pain. This Jiva is intrinsically the Knower, the Enjoyer and the Actor. Every soul according to its own status in the course of evolution is thus capable of being in its own way the 'knower, the enjoyer and the actor-Jnana, Bhokta and Kaita This process of knowing may be limited according to the biological conditions of the individual being Knowledge may be wider or narrowei according to the scale of evolution. The environment and knowledge expected of a lower animal will be much narrower than that of a human being and the environment and knowledge of a cultured individual will be very insignificant when compared to the knowledge of a person who by yoga or tapas acquired supersensual knowledge whose extensity would be very great Thus the growth of knowledge is conditioned by the spiritual growth of the individual soul or Jiva In the case of Moksha Jiva the knowledge becomes infinite compiising within itself all the three worlds, when he becomes the knower par-excellence who acquires the nomenclature of Sarvagna, the Omniscient and whose extensity is limitless in space and powers This Paramatma is Jnani, parexcellence. This Jaina conception of Jiva though fundamentally identical with the concept of Jiva in other Indian systems of thought, still differs from the other view in certain respects. For example, Sankhya Purusha which corresponds with the Jiva of the Jaina metaphysics is slightly different from the Jaina concept of Jiva. The Sankhyas thought that Purusha is a Chetana entity, but Purusha is the knower, and the cnjoyer, Jnatha and Bhokta but he is not active. He is not a karta. All activities in the concrete world according to Sankhya school is associated with body, the material entity which is called Prakriti in the Sankhya school and which is called Pudgala in the Jaina school of thought. Since all activities associated with non-thinking Prakritis in Sankhya system, the Chetana entity Purusha is not connected with any kind of activity. Then why should he be responsible for the