Tulsi Prajna 2002 01

SR No.: 524610
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shanta Jain, Jagatram Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 122
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

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elimination-cum subsidence of the relevant karmic veils is without the occurrence of any specific event. Sometimes, on the other hand, such memory takes place due to the presentation of some external event.
The memory of the past life is a variety of empirical knowledge. Maximally, one can recollect nine rational lives by means of this memory. According to the Acārānga commentary, however, the possessor of the power of recollection can remember any number of past lives, not only nine. 16
Rational life means life of a being who is possessed of mind which has the power of reasoning. Ordinarily, it is not possible to remember the past lives that were not endowed with mind.
It is not possible for all beings to have this memory. The reason for this is given the Tandulaveyalia" which says that the intense suffering at the time of birth and death stupefies the person so deeply that he is incapable of remembering his past life. The supine remnants of past experiences need specific events for their revival. This is the reason for the non-occurrence of memory in ordinary persons.
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Experience
It is the act of experiencing, which is twofold: feeling and knowing. Knowing includes five kinds of knowledge, i.e., empirical, articulate, clairvoyant, mind-reading and omniscient. The feeling is a kind of sensation. The Niryukti explicitly says that the feeling is due to the rise of ones karma. It is not the subject matter in the present context. Only the knowledge aspect of experience is relevant here.
That (soul) is 'I' myself this phrase refers to the person who recollects his past life and acquires a deep faith in his external existence through past, present and future. The person endowed with the memory of the past life is convinced of his own existence in the past. Such person has been directly referred to in the Sutra (1.4)-"the person who transmigrates from the cardinal and intermediate directions and subdirections is identical with myself".
The Curni has defined atman with reference to the aforesaid phrase. The query is made, "Although there is ätman, its defining characteristics have not been indicated". To this query, the preceptor answers thus: "experience of 'I' ness in the body which is not the 'I' in the judgements 'I am doing'. It is done by me, 'I' shall do this, defines the character of soul identified as 'I'. 18
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तुलसी प्रज्ञा अंक 115