Concept of Jiva in Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Z_Aspect_of_Jainology_Part_3_Pundit_Dalsukh_Malvaniya_012017.pdf

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1. C. Sikda
birth of meditation as a result of which the fourteen stages of spiritual development (guņas thāna) was considered for the spiritual attainment, for when they accepted rebirth, then there arose the question of karmakānda (action), pāpa (demerit or vice) and punya (merit or virtue), svarga (heaven) and naraka (hell), austerity and meditation on Soul.
The Jaina view and the Sāmkhya-Yoga conception of the nature of Soul
The study of the Samkhya-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"8
The Jaina and Samkhya-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 pariņāmitva (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 (kuțasthu-lutya), eternal and all-pervading. The Samkhya-Yoga philosophy does not conceive any kind of guņa (quality or attribute) or possibility of dharma (characteristic or change in Jivatativa (Sentient Principle) because of non-acceptance of kartstva-bhoktstva (doership and enjoyership) and gunuguņi-bhava (relation of attribute and substratum of attribute), or dharmadharmi-bhāva (relation of characteristic and possessor of characteristic), just as the doership and enjoyership in Soul, the decrease and increase or change in Quajities (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 intelligent 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”.55
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 (adhyavasāya). That material body (kārmaņa-śarira) becomes the container or the medium (material agency) of Soul from one birth to another. In the Sāṁkhya-Yoga system, inspite of having accepted Soul or consciousness itself as unchangeable or immutable (apariņāmi), indifferent spectator (alipta), devoid of