tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 203

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Buddbism
171
of subsequent births of an individual from the preceding ones based upon the quality of actions. In fact, there is nothing which is permanent; so nothing passes from one birth to another. As Poussin describes it--"There is no migration (samkrama samskranti), no passage of an individual from this life to another. When a man dies, the physical organism, which is the condition sine qua non of psychical life, dissolves, and the psychical life therefore, comes to an end."! It means that nothing survives the dissolution of the physical organism at the time of death and passes on to the subsequent life-neither consciousness nor Self. If it is a fact, how can the subsequent lives be influenced by the preceding ones? How can the results of the acts performed in the previous lise determine the state of the life to follow ? What is that which persists and influences the life to follow if nothing remains for more than one moment ? Unless something survives the bodily destruction of an individual, it is not possible to connect one birth to another birth that follows. What is then the linking principle ? What connects the two consecutive lives? What is that which enjoys the rewards and suffers the punishment for the acts in the previous birth ?? If the actions and their fruits are not real and do not possess any value, then all morality and struggle for the purification of life becomes meaningless. The Buddhists prescribed an elaborate moral code to be
Poussin L. D. V. : The Way to Nirvana, p. 48. 2 Dahlke Paul : Buddhist Essays, p. 27.
For Private And Personal