________________
Contribution of Ācārya Umāsvāti to the Concept of Existence 129 ‘All voices get reflected (i.e. fail to reach there). It is impossible to express the nature of the immaculate soul in words'.5 There is no reason there i.e. it is beyond the grasp of logic'.6 'The intellect fails to grasp it.
Ācārya Amộtcandrasūri in his commentary on Samayasāra transcreates this very idea in the following words — When one experiences the all embracing lustre of the self, lustre of the partial view-point does not arise and the organs of knowledge cease to work; one does not know where the circle of symbolic representation withers away; what more can be said even the duality ceases to be felt.8
Thus the Jaina scriptures right from the Ācārāṇgasūtra were conscious of absolute aspect of existence. Both the Śvetāmbara and Digambara scriptures describe this aspect of existence in negative terms also. He is neither long, nor short, nor a circle nor a triangle, nor a quadrilateral nor a sphere. He is neither black nor blue nor red nor yellow nor white. There exists no simile (to comprehend him).10
This may be compared to the following gāthā of the Samayasāra: In the (pure) soul there is no colour, no smell, no taste, no touch, no visible form, no body, no bodily shape and no skeletal structure. 11
This is comparable to the following description of the Upanişads: The self is without sound, without touch and without form, undecaying is likewise, without taste, eternal, without smell, without beginning, without end, beyond this great universe. Discerning that one becomes free from the mouth (jaws) of death.12
Thus we see that the Jainas do not stop at a relative truth but go beyond it and conceive of an absolute truth also. True to
