Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 80

[ 73 ]
called spirit (jiva) and non-spirit (ajiva). Spirits or souls in their pure form are conscious, immaterial, disembodied, eternal entities. They are characterized by infinite intuition (darsana), infinite knowledge (janana), infinite power (virya) and infinite bliss (sukha). In the state of purity they are untouched by suffering, unconditioned by limiting adjuncts.
But this original nature of the individual self (atma), is liable to become tainted and its perfections eclipsed. The soul, though permanent as a substance, is subject to modification through contact with matter (pudgala), a category of non-soul (ajiva). And this coming into contact, this modification is something real, not illusory. Unlike Vedanta, Jainism believes in the reality of both being and becoming.
Contamination with matter impairs the great qualities of the soul It becomes a victim of passions and error that are marked characteristics of most of the worldly lives. Thus worldly existence is thus nothing but the function of the relation of spirit and non-spirit.
THE NATURE OF WORLDLY EXISTENCE Now let us consider the nature of worldly existence. Observation even at the common level Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat