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An Epitome of Jainism
man, "he has numbered his days”, “his time has come” etc. Without going into the insoluble mysteries of metaphysics, in the above common observacions, which may be made anywhere and at any time and by anyone, we have the surest and most self-evident distinction between living and lifeless objects. If we can believe in the testimony of our own immediate observation, confirmed by the fact that the experience of every other thinking being is exactly the same, we must sum up the distinction between living and nonliving substances thus. A non-living substance does not have,
(1) The Vitality of the five senses; (2) The Power of body, speech and mind; (3) Respiration; and
(4) Age. These four may be coiled the four (or with their sub-divisions ten) vitalities of living beings.
But it is noticeable that all these four or ten are also a inanifestation of one underlying real fact; viz. that of consciousness. In a dead body the senseorgans are there and the eye may be impressed with colour and forin as before, but there is no consciousness behind it which in life received, and recorded, and responded to the ocular stimulus. The four or ten vitalities are sure signs to distinguish the living from the non-living; but in reality it is consciousness which distinguishes life from lifelessness.
Too much and too careful thought cannot be given to this consciousness. If we do not understand it, we shall wander from the truth. Let us, therefore, try to gain further insight into this consciousness.
We often pass through a street without seeing or hearing things which are present before the eye and the ear. A man spoke; but we say, “I am sorry, I did not hear him.” The speech was there; the sound waves impinged on
yet we did not hear. Why ? Simply because we were absorbed otherwise. We were not, i.e. our consciousness was not, attentive to it. This attentiveness of consciousness is another great distinction between the living and the lifeless. This attentiveness, of course, will be of as many different sorts as there are activities of the senses, mind and the soul, of which we can be conscious. We can be conscious of an object of sight, or of the other four senses; or of the soul itself directed to a material object or to its own Omniscience. Thus our attention also may be directed towards an ocular, or non-ocular object, or towards the soul directly knowing a material object or full of its own Omniscience.
Notice also, that of necessity, this attention is essential to any kind of knowledge. As a matter of fact, if we subject any piece of our knowledge to deep analysis we can note the following stages :
1. To begin with there is consciousness itself. This is the centre of life. It is life itself. It is the first and unmistakeable characteristic of what is called soul.
2. It must be attentive to conate an object, to be inclined towards an object, i.e. to be merely turned towards it.
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