Fundamentals Of Jainism

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Bharti

Page 87

MOKSHA
79
form of his own. The paramârman, however, differs from the ordinary unemancipated jiva in so far as the destruction of all kinds of karmas places Him for ever beyond the cycle of re-births fixing His form also, incidentally, once for all and for ever in the manner described in the tenth chapter of The Key of Knowledge. This form is the noblest form of all, being that of perfect MANHOOD, and the stature of the soul-substance, which on the attainment of complete liberation is freed from the liability to expansion and contraction in the manner of an unevolved jiva, is slightly less than that of the body from which nirvana is attained. Those who might find it difficult to reconcile this vicw of the Jaina Siddhanta with the prevailing notions of the Hindus and others who maintain that nirvana signifies an absorption into the deity—the merging of the drop in the sea-would find it easier to understand the nature of the form of the siddhárman in moksha if they would only take the trouble to analyse the idea underlying the notion of absorption. It is no usc trying to smother the voice of intellect when it proclaims that two or more existing realities, or individuals, can never be pressed into one; and neither reason nor analogy can ever be found to support the thesis of the absolute merger in respect of simple, indivisible entities. The very illustration of the disappearance of the drop in the sea is a sufficient refutation of all such notions; for the sea is an unit only in so far as the word is concerned, not in any other respect, so that the individuality' of the drops constituting its volume is neither destroyed nor impaired in the least in the process of their supposed merger. It is, no doubt, impossible for us to pick out any particular drop of water from the sea after oncc dropping it therein, but if our drop were invested with the functions of understanding and speech it would undoubtedly respond to a call from a friend on the shore.
The truc idea underlying the analogy, then, is only that of a collection of drops' enjoying a common status, which is fully in agreement with the Jaina view, according to which the siddhâtmans in nirvana enjoy the status of godhood but retain their individualities separate and distinct from others. Thus, the status is one though there is no limit to the number of individuals acquiring or attaining to it.
We gain nothing by denying the fact that we must have a clear