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Soul; its evolution according to Jainism. 214 SOUL; ITS EVOLUTION ACCORDING TO JAINISM.
Excerpts From A Lecture Delivered In The South London Temple.
( APRIL, 1212. )
Jainism is one of the faiths of the world; it originated in India, and it maintains that non-injury is the highest religion.
According to the Jain Metaphysics, truth is knowledge purged of all intoxicating elements, and the Jain Scriptures are handed down as being the teachings of those who have in the past purged their knowledge of all intoxicating ele. ments and reached omniscience.
The substance of the universe is not, never was, nor ever will be, one. homogeneous mass; EACH of us can divide it in. to self and not-self. The not-self is absent in each person, one soul does not ever become another. That which is notself is made up of living beings and of dead things ; each of us is therefore a social being; there are others. His right relation towards them is one of kindness. The insentient things have no feeling and he cannot pain them. "Self” is a synonym for soul ; 'others” is also a synonym for soul, which is one kind of substance, its characteristic being consciousness, life.
The word soul may produce in the mind nothing but a blank beyond, perhaps, a mental picture of the letters composing the word. In order that we may have a concrete idea of soul, any living being may be thought of, a butterfly, man, or anything alive. These are souls; the soul is not absent in them. But they are not pure souls; and it is not rational to assume that as far as the past is concerned they ever have been pure. Metals are not found in the pure state; gold has to be refined, and the soul has to be developed. The soul in any living being is there in its completeness; its qualities are only obscured by some impurity. in combination with the soul. That impurity is matter. When matter is in combination with a scul, the nature is changed, repulsion becomes aversion ; attraction becomes attachment; aversion take the
