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shapes, different aptitudes, having varying number of sense organs, undergoing different types and varying intensities of misery, pain etc. Is it possible that all such differences and variations occur without any cause? Keeping aside other beings, even among human beings there happens to be much diversity. Some are black, some are white; some are poor, some are prosperous; some live longer, some shorter; some are healthy, some are afflicted with disease; and so on.
Science would state that the physical variations are due to the differences in parental genes. But how can we account for the differences and diversities prevailing among the members of the same family? How do children get diseases, which are not possessed by their parents? Even twins conceived at the same time and born of the same parents display much diversity! There has to be some reason for all that, because nothing happens without a cause. The only sensible reason is that such phenomena occur on account of something that a soul might have indulged in earlier life. It means that the soul must have existed before. Once we accept that, it is easy to make out that it would continue to exist in future.
The explanatory note given (Vachanamrut # 718) under this stanza is pertinent here. It states, "The fury is noticed among snakes by birth; absence of violence is noticed among pigeons. From the very birth, bugs and other insects have the fear complex of being caught, and hence they tend to escape when we try to catch them. By birth, some beings have greater tendency of love, some have higher equanimity, some are more fearless, some have higher fear complex, some have more serenity, some have greater detachment, and some have more attachment for food, etc. Since such differences are noticed as existing from the birth, the reason thereof must lie in the traits developed from the earlier lives."
Ätmä Dravye Nitya Chhe, Paryaye Palatäy;
Bälädi Vay Tranyanun, Jnän Ekane Thay.
As a substance, the soul is eternal but its states continue to change; childhood, adulthood and old age are experienced by the same person. (68)
Explanation & Discussion:
This and the subsequent two stanzas are in reply to the pupil's contention that the existence of soul could be ephemeral or transitory. The reply in this stanza is based on Anekäntväd, meaning the multiplicity of viewpoints. Jainism considers every thing mainly from two points of view. One relates to the true nature of a substance and is known as the Dravyärthic viewpoint. From that viewpoint a substance always remains the same and continues to hold its natural properties. Neither does its nature change, nor do any of its inherent properties disappear. Jainism specifies six original substances, of which soul and Pudgal are more significant.
Take the instance of soul. Consciousness and knowing capability are its inherent properties, which always stay with it. Even when a soul is born as a one-sensed being, it is not entirely devoid of consciousness or of the knowing capability. This can be seen by the sense of pain and pleasure that is experienced even by plant life. The soul as a substance
