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J. C. Sikdar
birth of meditation as a result of which the fourteen stages of spiritual development (gunasthana) was considered for the spiritual attainment, for when they accepted rebirth, then there arose the question of karmakāṇḍa (action), papa (demerit or vice) and punya (merit or virtue), svarga (heaven) and naraka (hell), austerity and meditation on Soul.
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The Jaina view and the Samkhya-Yoga conception of the nature of Soul
The study of the Sämkhya-Yoga system of thought reveals that like Jaina Philosophy it accepts each individual soul endowed with beginningless and endless inherent consciousness.67 It admits the existence of infinite souls (i. e. plurality of souls) by conceiving soul as distinct due to the difference of body. That is to say, "The plurality of the spirits is established, because birth, death and organs are allotted separately, because there is no activity at one time, and because there are different modifications of the three attributes"
The Jaina and Sämkhya-Yoga systems differ on the point that the latter does not admit Soul's capacity of contraction and expansion as being equal to the extent. of the body or parinämitva (changeability) in consciousness from the point of view of substance as maintained by the former, but both of them accept the reality of consciousness (cetana-tattva) as unchangeable permanent (kutastha-mitya), eternal and all-pervading. The Sämkhya-Yoga philosophy does not conceive any kind of guna (quality or attribute) or possibility of dharma (characteristic or change in Jivatativa (Sentient Principle) because of non-acceptance of kartriva-bhokirtva (doership and enjoyership) and guņuguni-bhava (relation of attribute and substratum of attribute), or dharmadharmi-bhava (relation of characteristic and possessor of characteristic), just as the doership and enjoyership in Soul, the decrease and increase or change in Qualities (gunas) as purity and impurity in it are found in the Jaina tradition. The Samkhya says: "And from that contrast it follows that the spirit is endowed with the characteristics of witnessing, isolation, indifference perception, and inactivity. Therefore, the non-intelligent linga becomes as if intelli gent on account of its contact with that (spirit). And although the activity belongs to the Attributes, yet the indifferent (spirit) seems as if it were an agent",5
Jaina metaphysics admits one material subtle body being formed around Soul, for it is regarded as the receiver of the impression of all karma-pudgalas (karmic matters) fallen on it as a result of auspicious or inauspicious mental effort or apprehension (adhyavasaya). That material body (kārmaṇa-sarira) becomes the container or the medium (material agency) of Soul from one birth to another. In the Samkhya-Yoga system, inspite of having accepted Soul or consciousness itself as unchangeable or immutable (apariņāml), indifferent spectator (alipta), devoid of
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