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 304

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
232
| Atman and MokỆa
the body like colour which as natural qualities of the body exist as long as the body continues." Consciousness does not exist in dead corpse." As it is not always possessed of consciousness, consciousness cannot be in its essential nature or it is not constituted of consciousness. Thus consciousness is only an adventitious characteristic of the soul. S. Radhakrishnan remarks-"Consciousness is not an essential property of the soul.” He further says -"It follows that the soul which is the substratum of consciousness need not always be conscious. As a matter of fact, it is an unconscious (jada ) principle capable of being qualified by states of conciousness. Consciousness cannot exist a part from self, even as the brilliance of the flame cannot live apart from the flame; but the soul itself is not necessarily conscious. Consciousness is regarded as a quality of the soul produced in the waking state by the conjunction of the soul with manas. It is an intermittent quality of the self."2 .
The soul not being inherently sentient, possesses consciousness as its quality. Consciousness is produced in the soul when it gets connected to the body through the manas. The soul has simply the potency of knowledge. Annambhațța says that knowledge arises by the contact of the sense organs with the external objects of experience. Thus, according to the Nyāya system, body is indispensable for knowledge. It may appear from this as if body itself
1 Vidyabhusana S. C. - The Nyāya Sutras of Gotama. 13:: 2. 51.
2 Radhakrishnan S. : Indian Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 149.
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