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 444

412
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
For Private And Personal
Atman and Mokṣa
the properties of the body they would have existed in dead bodies; but it is contrary to facts. Dead bodies are devoid of any cognition and experiences like pleasure and pain. Moreover, the body is constituted of the particles of earth which are unintelligent or unconscious. It is therefore concluded by Ganganath Jha-"Such phenomena as the feelings of pleasure, pain and the like are cognised by the person himself only, while the qualities of colour and the rest which belong to the physical body are cognised and perceived by others also. This shows that there are certain qualities in the person which are directly cognisable by himself only." Moreover, another fallacious conclusion will follow from indentifying the soul with the body. If they were identical, and the body being perishable, the phenomenon of rebirth cannot be consistently explained. The doctrine of Karma requires for explaining the continuity of successive births something that endures in two successive births; that which does some deeds in the preceding life must proceed to the succeeding birth to reap the rewards of its deeds done formerly. If the body were the soul, who would transmigrate after the body is destroyed at death? Therefore, the admission of soul is inescapable. Similarly if the two were identical, the soul would change with every change in the body and would undergo deformities which occur usually in the body. Moreover, if the body were the substratum of cognition, pleasure and pain it would always remain full of them;
1 Jha Ganganath
Purva-Mimämsā, Ch. II, p. 27.