Book Title: Atmasiddhi
Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

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Page 50
________________ which are based on the Veds. Sänkhya, Yog, Poorva Mimänsä, Uttar Mimänsä, Nyäy, and Vaisheshik are such six schools. The list obviously keeps Jainism and Buddhism out, because they do not subscribe to Veds. In order to accommodate them the schools are mentioned a bit differently. Since Nyäy and Vaisheshik schools have much in common, they are grouped together under the title Naiyäyik. Similarly Poorva Mimänsä and Uttar Mimänsä are grouped together under the title Vedänt. The six schools then consist of Sänkhya, Yog, Vedänt, Naiyäyik, Jainism, and Buddhism. All these schools have the same common objective of liberation. The differences arise on account of differing concepts about the creation, creator, soul, and liberation. Sänkhya, Jainism and Buddhism, for instance, do not believe in the creation of the world, while other schools believe in creation and a creator. Sänkhya, Yog, Naiyayik, and Jainism believe in endless number of individual souls. Vedänt believes in one single soul. Buddhism does not believe in the existence of everlasting soul. Such differences arise, because most of the people tend to think from their own perspective. Jainism takes into consideration all possible perspectives. The six Fundamentals mentioned here present the synthesis of all the different viewpoints. It is therefore said in this stanza that those Fundamentals constitute the six ideologies. Some people like to accommodate even the atheist belief of Chärväk within the framework of six schools. For that purpose they group Sänkhya and Yog together, because their approach is more or less similar and treat Sänkhya, Naiyayik, Vedänt, Jainism, Buddhism and Chärväk as six schools of thought. In the Stavan (Adoration song) of Naminäth, the 21st Tirthankar, the great philosopher-poet-monk Anandghanji has treated Sänkhya, Yog, Buddhism, Mimänsä, Chärväk, and Jainism as the six schools and has presented a unique way of synthesizing them. Anandghanji conceives of the detached Lord as personifying the spiritual realm and treats those six schools as constituting different limbs of the Lord. The concept of Sänkhya and Yog about the soul is somewhat analogous to the Jain concept. They are therefore treated as constituting two feet of the Lord. Mimänsä (which is the same as Vedänt) believes in one single eternal soul, while Buddhism believes in ever-changing states. Thus they represent the Jain beliefs from substantial (Dravyarthic) and variable (Paryayarthic) points of view. From the Dravyarthic point of view all souls are identical. As such, they can be treated as one single unit. That concept is analogous to the Vaidic belief of only one Brahman pervading everywhere. From the Paryäyärthic point of view, however, every soul continues to assume a new state from time to time. That concept is analogous to the Buddhist concept of ever-changing states. Mimänsä and Buddhism are therefore treated as constituting two arms of the Lord. Chärväk is treated as representing the stomach of the Lord. The stomach accepts different types of food, but it distributes the same to various limbs and does not keep anything with it. Similarly, Chärväk took into consideration all the theories about the soul, but did not adopt any of them. His view is therefore comparable to the stomach. The last one, Jainism, represents the head, which is the highest limb of the Lord. In order to justify that status, the Stavan ends with the following summarization.

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