Jaina Gazette 1927

SR No.: 034889
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J L Jaini, Ajitprasad
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1927
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 90

RELIGION AND COMPARATIVE RELIGION 55
which he has set out in his work on Metaphysics. Kant, the great German thinker, too, found himself forced to recognize the fact that certain forms of knowledge were given a priori in the conciousness of the perceiving individual. The soul, then, is an intelligent substance, in its nature. Now, because the soul is a substance, and because the attributes of substance do not vary it follows that every soul has the same capacity with respect to knowledge. In other words, what one individual knows is capable of being known by all individuals. On proper amplification, this only means that every soul has the capacity to acquire a knowledge of all things that were ever known to any one in the past, that are known to any in the present, and that will ever be known to any one in the future. In short, knowledge unlimited by time and space resides potentially in the soul-substance itself and needs only expression to be actualized.
The next great attribute of the soul that Jainism lays stress on is happiness. It points out that apart from the forms of pleasure usually known to us there is another kind of happiness which is the natural pulsation o! the soul.substance. The soul is a concious substance, which means that it feels its own states, even when it knows any other objects it knows them only because of the modification of its own states produced by them, which it leels. Now, a substance that can feel its own states and the modifications of such states must naturally have an original or natural state of feeling of its own, independently of external influences, Jainism points out that this natural feeling of the soul-substance is purely joyous, so that if the soul was rid of all external intluences it would feel nothing but the purest and the most exalted form of happiness. Again because this pure form of the feeling of happiness will be the natural state of the soul-substance, and quite independent of all foreign admixture or influence, it will be uninterrupted and unlading once it is secured from outside aggression and interference. There are other reasons to show that the natural fúeling of the soul is one of happiness, but for want of time I cannot afford to go into them now.
· The result of our study of the nature of the soul, then, is that Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat