Book Title: Gandharavada
Author(s): Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha

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Page 308
________________ 219 yet is eternal. Moreover, this reason 'because it is caused and is a new creation' is asiddha (unreal) as knowledge and bliss are inherent in the soul and so it is not proper to regard these as caused, like a jar, or as new creations like lightning; they were only obscured and in the state of emancipation merely the veils are removed; but they were all along existent like sunlight or moonlight revealing itself when the clouds move away from it. They are not caused like a jar, nor are they new manifestations of things non-existent before, like lightning; and hence they cannot be non-eternal. Moreover, in the view of the Jina everything is of the nature of utpadasthiti-vyaya, knowledge and bliss are both eternal and noneternal; they may be regarded as caused and non-eternal from the point of view of the particular mode of manifestation; the object of knowledge from the point of view of the mode perishes every moment, so knowledge also perishes and is from this point of view non-eternal; pleasure too undergoes transformation every moment, so it too can be looked upon as non-eternal. If from this point of view, knowledge and bliss though inherent are looked upon as anitya, there is nothing wrong in it; that is acceptable even to Lord Mahavira (2013-14). Now we turn to the apparently conflicting statements in the Veda: The sentence 'Na ha vai sasarīrasya......'would have no consistency if there were no emancipation, if the soul were destroyed in that state and if there were no bliss in it. So it should be taken as establishing these. 'Matirapi na prajñāyate...' also cannot establish the absence of the soul in the state of emancipation (2015). Prabhasa interprets 'Na ha vai sasarirasya...' to mean that when the body, etc. perish the soul too becomes non-existent like ass's horn, because it also is destroyed; so 'asarira' means soul which is non-existent like ass's horn, and the Veda says that pleasure and pain do not affect such a soul. Thus both the Vedic statements are interpreted as having the same meaning, and as being consistent in meaning. Thus he concludes Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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