Gandharwad

Author(s): Ratnaprabhvijay, D P Thaker
Publisher: Jain Granth Prakashak Sabha

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(d) Summary of the Text.
We give below a summary of the text of Gañadharavāda which is contained in Gathās running from 1549 to 2024 of the Vis'eşāvas'yaka Bhāşya.
(i) Jiva:-Indrabhūti Gautama, the first Ganadhara, puts forward his doubt about the existence of Soul and S'ramaņa Bhagavān Mahāvara removes the doubt by means of various evidences and illustrations. Explaining the meaning of the word ' Jiva' the Bhagavān remarks that Jiva' does not signify body-deha-but it signifies the soul-ātmā-which is full of cognizance. Body is only inanimate..
Smrti (remembrance ), jzjñāsā (desire for knowledge ), cikêrsā ( desire for activity ), jigamişā ( desire for movements ) and sams'aya (doubt) etc. are the properties of Soul, which being self-evident is pratyaksa or directly apprehended. Since body is corporeal and physically visible, properties like cognizance etc. cannot reside into it. These properties are contained in Soul, because it is a-mūrta or incorporeal and a-cākṣuşa or beyond the range of physical sight. This shows that Soul is absolutely different from body.
In reply to the argument of the Vedāntists that Soul, being one and the same everywhere, can never be classified, Sramana Bhagåvān Mahāvîra Swamî contends that if the Soul were one absolute entity pervading everywhere, it ought to have been apprehended as one all-pervading element like ākās'a even in case of each and every pinda or body. But that is not so. The Soul varies with the shape and size of pinda or body. Besides, if we deny the existence of Soul, there would be nothing like sukha-duhkha and Bandha-Moksa in this world.
The Soul is accepted as vijnānaghana or an assemblage of many vijñānas ( cognitions ), firstly because it is identical with vijñāna which is upayoga ( attention ) either of the type of jñāna ( knowledge.) or that of dars'ana (perception ) and