Jaina Gazette 1928

SR No.: 034890
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 502
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

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THE JAINA DOCTRINE OF SOUL ness as nothing but a product of Matter; in enunciating the momentary reality of sensations etc., they rather rejected the materialist contention. The Jainas attributed consciousness to the soul as a quality; and like the Buddhists, they repudiated the theory of the materialist Charvakas.
In criticising the Charvaka position, the Jaina philosophers point out that it conciousness were an outcome of the physical body, it would have continued to persist in a dead body. For, the body remains as usual even when the animal dies ; rather, on account of the subsidence of fever etc., the body of a dead unimal may be said to be in a healthier state. The physical body cannot be said to be the cause of consciousness. If you look upon the body as the Allendant cause (Sahakarikarana or accompanying condition) of consciousness, you are led to admit the reality of a non-physical, non-material substance as the Material cause (Upadana-karana or substantial cause) of conciousness, which is against the Charvaka theory. Nor can you say that the physical body is the Material cause of consciousness. For, in that case, every modification in the body would have been followed by a corresponding modification of consciousness. On the other hand, no modifications are found in the body, corresponding to such modifications of consciousness, as Gladness, Sorrow, Sleep, Unconsciousness, Fear, Grief etc. Animals having huge bodies are often found to be possessed of very little intelligence and small animals are sometimes sound to be remarkably intelligent. Besides, Self consciousness,-the consciousness of I'_.which is embedded in every series of consciousness, cannot be said to originate from the body. For, every one feels, it is my body'; hence the fact that this l'or the self is separate from the body must be admitted as a matter of direct perception.
Although there is general agreement between the Jainas and the Buddhists in this that conciousness is not a modification of Matter, the Buddhists deny the real existence of the Soul. They contend that a sensation comes into existence every moment and it perishes immediately after it; there is no perma
nent persistent reality, underlying the series of momentary senShree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat