Atma Siddhi

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, J L Jaini
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Page 40

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ATMA-SIDDHI
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Now let us take up some objections raised by Mr. Uttamchand M. Doshi who kindly compared my English translation with the Gujarati original of Srimat Rajchandra.
Doubt 1. One cannot have doubt of one's own existence, yet the soul has doubt of its own existence. Therefore there is no soul.
The very wording implies the existence of the soul. But the spirit of the doubt is deeper. It may mean two things: (1) Doubt destroys or negatives the existence of the thing doubted. (2) The soul being the knower must never doubt its own knowing or its own existence.
(1) Doubt is subjective; the thing doubted is objective. This subjective feeling cannot affect the existence of the object doubted. As you are reading this book. You may doubt the existence of the book; your doubt may be perfectly sincere,even reasoned and ascertained, still the book will exist. The doubt is an error of judgement, but obviously it cannot affect the existence of the object doubted.
(2) Here a slight and very old fallacy is involved. The question forgets that doubting means thinking and thinking implies a thinker or knower. This doubt itself establishes a
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