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 270

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
238
Atman and Mcksa
things possess soul though not visible to all. Thus we find it is a kind of pan-spiritualism; nothing in the world is devoid of the soul or Jiva.
It appears that as all the things are possessed of souls and soul has a definite nature of conscious. ness and bliss, all things are manisestations of one spirit which is omnipresent and the same in all. But the Jaings do not reduce all the particular finite souls to one single spiritual principle or universal self; they, on the contrary, maintain the existence of infinite independent souls. Stevenson clearly sounds a warning against such a confusion. She writes - “They also differ, of course, from the Vedāntists, who believe in one all-soul, not in numberless individual souls like these." !
The Jains divide the Saṁsārī Jivas also according to sex. There are male Jivas, female Jivas and the neuter Jivas. In fact the sex does not belong to the essential nature of the Jiva; it is a physical adjunct with which the abstract principle of sentience, i.e. the Jiva is associated, while living in the earthly life. The Tattvārthadhigamasūtram of Umā. swamin or the Sarvadars'anasangraha does not nention this division of the Jiva according to sex. This division is obtained in the Heart of Jainism' by Stevenson. Similarly she mentions the division of soul according to the place where it was born. According to this division there are four possible Jivas. The Jivas born in hell are called the Nāraki;
i Stevenson Sinclair : The Heart of Jainism, p. 98 (foot note ).
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