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 91

56
THE JAINA GAZETTE
it is proved to be inmortal, all-knowing and blissful, in its own right. But omniscience, immortality and bliss are but three of the most worshipful qualities in the highest conception of Divinity. Every soul, then, is a God in potency, and may become one in actual manifestation, by ridding himself of the cause that operates to deprive him of his natural birth-right so to speak.
The main question, then, is what is the cause that stands in the way of the soul and keeps it out of its Godhood ? Jainism deals with this question also in the true spirit of scientific enquiry, and explains that the union of substances tends to limit their natural functions in different ways, according to the nature and extent of their fusion. For instance, when Oxygen and hydrogen coalesce to form a drop of water, their gaseous nature is curtailed, and reduced to the state of bare fluidity. Similarly, the functions of the soul substance are curtailed and suspended by the companionship of matter in which it is embodied. The body is, then, a hindrance in its path, and prevents it from becoming a God, in actuality.
Further investigation shows that the body is not fixed to the soul by means of screws and levers, or bars and locks of iron or of some other metal. It is held simply by the subtle magnetism of the soul's own desiring nature, and can be dispersed by the total elimination of all desires for the enjoyment of the things of the world. In other words, matter does not possess the power to assail and cannot assail the soul unless the soul itself turn to it in the first instance. For even such intimate contact with matter as that of food on the tongue will not give rise to its taste unless the soul turn to it; for when the attention is exclusively engrossed else. where the food on the tongue remains unnoticed, but with attention the relish of every morsel is experienced and felt and enjoyed thoroughly. The difference between the two states is merely one of attention, so that when the soul attends to the bit of food in the mouth its taste is felt, and when it attends to something else knowledge is had of that some thing else but not of the food that is being crunched and mashed in the mouth.
This b:ief survey is sufficient in my opinion to give us a gene. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat