Enlightened Vision of the Self

Author(s): Akalankadev, Devendra K Goyal
Publisher: Radiant Publishers New Delhi

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THE ENLIGHTENED VISION OF THE SELF
together by combination or association. Each quality may vary in intensity or in extensity. But all the three characteristics must be present in any Jira however high or low it be in the scale of development.
The doctrine of the Mimamsakas and the Vaisheshikas that knowledge, consciousness or power to know is an independent quality which, when it comes in contact with the soul, enables it to perceive and know itself and other things, is also untenable on the ground that qualities or attributes only inhere in substances (Drazzaashrah gimah) as Tattrartha Sutra (V.41) categorically states. Commenting on it, Barrister Champat Rai Jain remarks:
That qualities inhere in substances is a self-evident truth, for they cannot be conceived to exist by themselves. If they could lead an existence independently of substance, we should have softness, hardness, manhood and the like also existing by themselves, which would be absurd. Moreover, if qualities were capable of leading an independent existence of their own, existence also would exist separately from all other qualities. But this would make existence itself a featureless function or attribute of nothing whatsoever, on the one hand, and all the other remaining qualities simply nonexistent, on the other, because existence would no longer be associated with them. It follows, therefore, that qualities cannot be conceived to exist apart from substances.*
Thus, the intrinsic attribute of consciousness (chetana) with its psychic characteristics or properties of intuition, knowing, feeling and activity persist or continue to exist and reside in the soul even in the liberated state, shining in their full effulgence as infinite vision, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss or happiness and infinite vigour (ananta chatushtaya) and is not extinguished or destroyed. The indestructible nature of the soul refutes the viewpoint of those who adhere to the philosophy of void, nothingness or no-soul.
The existence of the soul is affirmed in categorical terms in the second verse of Swarupa Sambodhana. This verse refutes the materialist Charvaka system of thought which denies the independent existence