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 140

INTRODUCTION
CXXX 1X
activity carried out by some other entity? He is really non-active Akarta. The Jaina thinkers object to this Sankhya view They say that if the Purusha is Akarta or non-active and merely a spectatoi of an activity carried out by another agency there is no moral justification in maintaining that he is the Bhokta or the enjoyer of the fruits of such an activity The fruits of activity are either pleasurable of painful, and why should an entity which is not responsible for the activity be destined to enjoy the result of pain or pleasure Similarly the other schools of thought such as the Mimamsakas and the Viseshikas maintain that Jnana or the knowing capacity gets associated with the soul which is by nature intrinsically devoid of this guna or quality The knowing capacity or Jnana which is a distinct entity from the soul is brought in association with the soul or Jivatma by combination; then the soul becomes the knower. This doctrine also is rejected by the Jaina thinkers as most contradictory, because it would reduce the Atma or the soul to a non-thinking entity before it has the good fortune to be combined with Guna or quality of knowledge or Jnana. The knowing capacity or Jnana is intrinsic manifestation of the spiritual entity Chetana dravya or Jiva. To imagine that the quality of guna can exist separately from the Jiva or the Atma is according to Jaina metaphysics quite impossible and meaningless, because according to this central doctrine of Jainism Guna and Dravya cannot be separated and when so separated each becomes meaningless abstractions incapable of existence in reality. Hence the triple psychic characteristics of knowing, feeling and action are considered inalienable qualities of the Chetana entity, Atma or Jiva, and they should not be considered to be of independent existence brought together by combination or association Each quality may vary in intensity or in extensity. But all the three characteristics must be present in any Jiva however high or low it be in the scale of development. The process of Jnana being an intrinsic quality of the Chetana entity or Atma introduces a peculiar attitude in the matter of epistemology according to Jaina thinkers. The basic principle of knowing process of the Jiva or the Atman; and the variations in the knowing process of a particular Jiva are due