Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 65

THE DOCTRINE OF THE SELF
of eight-petalled lotus.97 It is interesting to note that the Jaina philosophers acknowledge the existence of selves without mind besides the existence of selves with mind.98 Mind is considered as a special sense-organ which is unmanifest; therefore it is called no-indriya. THE NATURE OF THE SUPREME SELF
In a series of verses Kundakunda describes the ultimate nature of the real self. We quote below two such verses :
"I am unique in so far as I am of the nature of consciousness. Therefore dharma and other things are not related to me. Therefore, he who thinks like this is called 'unrelated to dharma and other things' by the knowers of true self. I am indeed unique, absolutely pure, always non-corporeal, and full of perceptual vision and knowledge. Therefore not even an atom of alien thing whatsoever belongs to me".99
Those who identify the self with the not-self are perverse minded.
The Samadhitantra declares that the root cause of the sufferings of samsara is the false notion of taking the body as the self; therefore one should abandon this notion and controlling the outward tendencies of the senses enter into the innermost core, i.e. the self.100
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In some Jaina texts a distinction between the self with limitations or attributes and self without limitations or attributes is tacitly assumed. Thus the self (jiva, ātman) is said to be endowed with the following limitations and attributes. It has life principle, consciousness, cognition; it is doer, it is active, it is enjoyer, it is of the same extent as body, it is formless and it is attached to karma, 101 These attributes belong to the jiva with limitations or upadhis. There are also the corresponding attributes belonging to the self without limitations or upādhis, which are as follows.
The liberated self is of pure and perfect existence; it has infinite consciousness; it is endowed with supreme knowledge (kevala-jñana) and supreme vision (kevala-darśana), it is the Lord by virtue of freedom from karmas; it is the real doer in the sense of being independent; it is the enjoyer of the eternal bliss born of the realisation of the true
97. Gommaṭasāra: Jivakāṇḍa, verse 443.
98.
Tattvarthasutra, II. 11.
99. Samayasara, I. 37-38.
100.
Samadhitantra, verse 15. See also verses 16-17, 54-55.
101. Pañcastikāyasara, verse 27.