Gandharavada

Author(s): Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha

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non-believers in soul, so a section of them viz. the Sammitiyas or Vätsiputriyas advanced the theory that there is an entity called the pudgala or soul. This view did not find favour, as it was regarded as being against the view of Buddha. The Sarvästi vädins, on the other hand, to hold their own against other currents of thought recognising a soul and thus justifying the doctrine of transmigration and bondage-salvation, gave the name of citta to nama (vedana, sainjñā, samskara, and vijñāna) and gave an analysis of it as divided into a number of parts. Even while accepting it as momentary, they established it as existing in all the three times by recognising its potency in the past and the future. This was equivalent to accepting Eternalism (Śāśvatavada) to which Buddha was very much opposed. The Sautrantikas, therefore, came forward to established it as momentary and existing in the present instant alone. The Madhyamikas realised that this was simply dialectics and this inspired them in the direction of Sunyavada or the doctrine of the essencelessness of things. Ultimately the Vijñanavādins established that streams of momentary consciousness, infinite in number, are the only reality, everything else being external projections of them. This gives us some idea as to how difficult it is to deny a persisting sentient entity. The Jainas as compared to others have a synthetic approach inasmuch as a harmony is established by them between both change and persistence. The Buddhists find it very difficult to explain bondage, transmigration, emancipation, memory, recognition, etc. on the basis of the theory that every point-instant is different from the preceding and the succeeding point-instants of nama or citta or vijñana, as no identity is recognised. It is also not possible to have the knowledge of the momentariness of all things in the some moment, for knowledge too is momentary. To avoid these difficulties, it would be more rational, according to the Jainas, to recognise a soul distinct from the body.
Knowledge is inherent in the soul, but does not shine because it is obscured by the veil of karman. Five kinds of knowledge can arise with the removal of the corresponding karma-veil, viz., mati (sensuous), śruta (scriptural), avadhi (visual intuition),