Comparative Study Of Jaina Theories Of Reality And Knowledge

SR No.: 022768
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Y J Padmarajaiah
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal
Publication Year: 1963
Total Pages: 446
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 35 MB

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controlling (niyantṛ) cause (kāraṇa)'. The body is, therefore, defined by Rāmānuja as "Any substance which a sentient soul is capable of completely controlling and supporting for its own purposes, and which stands to the soul in an entirely subordinate relation". Thus Rāmānuja maintains that the absolute is a supreme organism consisting of a cosmic soul and its dependent (seṣa) bodily parts (the world and the selves) which serve its purpose. The bodily parts, or the modes, are conceived to be identical with (ananya) God as they are at one with him in their substance. But they are also said to be different from (svabhavabhinnaś ca) God, just as a body is different from its soul.
JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
1. Isvara in this philosophy is not merely the upādāna cause but also the nimitta and the sahakari cause. This follows of course from the Satkarya basis of this philosophy. Tattvatrayam and the Bhāṣya, pp. 102 ff., especially p. 109. The views of the Vaiśeşikas, the Sankhyas and also of others are criticised here. See also Srinivasa's Yatindramatadipikä, ed. Ratna Gopal Bhatta, Benares, 1907, p. 37.
2. The Vedanta-Sutras, p. 424. As a matter of fact Rāmānuja believes that it is only iśvara or the 'Supreme Soul' that can possess a body unconditionally: cf. "Everything in this world, whether individual souls or material things, form the body of the Supreme Soul, and therefore He alone can be said to possess a body unconditionally (nirupadhikaḥ śārīra ātmā).” V.A. Sukhtankar's 'Teachings of Vedanta according to Rāmānuja', Vienna Oriental Journal, Vol. XXII, pp. 128-129. See also f.n. 1 on p. 128 for an explanation of the word 'unconditionally'. For "The evolution of the concept of Seşa", see B. C. Law Volume Pt. II, pp. 123-127.
cetanācetanam vis vam ananyam brahmato bhavet Srinivāsācārya's Sri-bhāṣya-vārtika, ed. Ratna Gopal Bhatta, Benares, 1907, p. 53, stanza 80; see also what follows.
5. Cf. Sakalācārya's description of paramātmā (God) as atyantavilakşana in relation to the modes on the authority of Srşți in his Sakalācārya-mata-sangraha, p. 5. Cf. also Rāmānuja's own
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