Elusive Consciousness

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari, Surendrasingh Pokharana, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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implies that one is owner of some object other than the self. Here ownership indicates that soul is master of own self and is not property of any one else; soul is not master of anything other than the self; it does not own any property. Soul owns his pure states. Soul is complete and independent self and is not dependent on external world or external power for its function.
The above description of powers of the soul provides a glimpse of the real powers of the soul. The soul possesses powers with which it manifests in various ways to manage own states as well as the body through karma in the mundane state and yet it remains unadulterated and does not contract the properties of matter. The perverted modes of aversion and attachment are counted as weaknesses and not as rising powers of the soul, these karma based modes disappear on elimination of karma. The soul and body are exclusive to each other; they transform by their own powers and laws and appear to maintain a relation by the principle of parallelism so that changes in one are correspondingly reflected in the other without interchange of the attributes of one another. Both soul and body have independent existence yet the 'life' is the result of their combination. The infinite attributes and powers of the soul make the 'life' in multiple forms and in multifaceted and multi-dimensional aspects possible.
In conclusion, we note that the soul is chaitanya-self (possessed of consciousness) having persisting attributes, successive modes and infinite powers and attributes and is never extinct of its primary identifying character, the intelligence, self-awareness, bliss and spiritual energy.
6 Consciousness
Consciousness, according to Jainism and most other philosophies, is a property of the soul. Consciousness, and hence intelligence, in no case can be a property of insentient matter. The concepts of emergent property, or epiphenomenon, that consciousness emerges from matter (or brain) are fundamentally misunderstood. This materialistic approach stems from the assumption that every truth is empirically verifiable. According to Jainism some truths, including the absolute ones, are only experienced. The universe consists of two kinds of substances physical and non-physical; the non-physical substances can be verified by inference only and cannot be measured empirically.
Another concept analogous to consciousness is awareness. Awareness is defined as the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or
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