Book Title: Harmless Soul
Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 227
________________ Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 213 description is simply a worldly or "conventional" one'. 95 That is to say, 'From the vyavahāra point of view the omniscient lord sees and knows everything, from the niścaya point of view the omniscient sees and knows the self.96 But, according to the Pravacanasāra, this exclusive knowledge of the self is not a limitation on or contraction of knowledge; on the contrary, knowledge of the self includes knowledge of everything else. As gāthā 1:23 puts it: The soul is co-extensive with knowledge; knowledge is said to be co-extensive with the objects of knowledge; the object of knowledge comprises the physical and non-physical universe; therefore knowledge is omnipresent. 97 It follows from this that the soul too is omnipresent. Although this is admitted as a temporary possibility in certain circumstances by orthodox doctrine, it is not seen as a characteristic of the liberated soul.98 Kundakunda, however, confirms at Pravacanasāra 1:26 that this is how he understands the nature of the kevalin: The great Jina is everywhere and all the objects in the world are within him; the Jina consists of knowledge, and those referents of words (i.e. objects) are declared his because they are the objects of knowledge. As the Tattvadīpikā on 1:26 states, this means simply that the Jina knows all the objects in the world completely (i.e. he knows the meaning of all words and so he knows 95 Ibid. p. 267. 96 Niyamasāra 159. Cf. Niyamasāra 166: appasarūvám pecchadi loyāloyam ņa kevali bhagavam ... - '[From the niscaya point of view] the omniscient lord sees the real nature of the self, not the universe and non-universe.... 97 Upadhye's translation, p. 4. 98 See JPP pp. 102-3, and especially p. 269. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372