Soul Substance Jiva Dravya As Expounded In Dravya Sangraha

SR No.: 269765
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vijay K Jain
Total Pages: 26
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 882 KB

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knowledge arises only after acquisition of faith. But in omniscient souls both, perception and knowledge, arise simultaneously; still there exists a relationship of cause and effect between the two, as between the lamp and the light.
Amūrta-incorporeal (non-material or non-concrete)
Qualities that are perceived by the senses characterize material substances, and manifold are mūrta or corporeal qualities; colour, taste, smell and touch are found in matter, from the finer molecule to the gross earth. Sound is also material and of various kinds. Substances that do not exhibit such qualities are to be known as amurta or incorporeal. All substances (dravya) other than the matter (pudgala) are incorporeal (amūrta).
As per the transcendental point of view (niscaya naya), the soul is devoid of five colours, five kinds of taste, two kinds of smell, and eight kinds of touch and, therefore, incorporeal. When it is sullied with karmic dirt, only then, from the empirical point of view (vyavāhara naya), the soul is said to be having corporeal form.
The pure soul should be known as without taste, colour and smell, beyond perception though the senses, characterized by consciousness, without sound, cannot be apprehended through a symbol or a sense organ, and its form or shape cannot be portrayed. The empirical point of view (vyavahāra naya) indeed holds that the soul and the body are the same; however, from the transcendental point of view (niscaya naya) the soul and the body are never the same as these are made up of different substances. The soul is non-material in a non-absolutistic sense only. It is not true that the soul is only non-material. From the point of view of the modes in bondage, owing to the influence of karmas, the soul is corporeal in the embodied state. From the point of view of its pure nature, the soul is incorporeal. One may argue that since the soul becomes one with the body because of the influence of karmas it must not be considered separate from the body. This is not true. Though the soul is one with the body in the embodied state, it is different from the body because of its distinctive characteristics.
The soul (jīva) and the matter (pudgala) are two different substances. The former is conscious and incorporeal and the latter is unconscious and corporeal. Every embodied self (samsārī jīva) has a soul and a body. It has a gross body, and a karmic body (kārmaņa śarīra) comprising extremely subtle particles of matter. Both these bodies vanish as the soul attains liberation.
Kartā - the doer, producer or causal agent
From the empirical point of view (vyavahāra naya), the soul is said to be the producer of karmic matter (dravya-karma), like knowledge-obscuring karma; from the impure transcendental point of view (aśuddha niscaya naya), the soul is responsible for its
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