Introduction to Jainism and its Culture

Author(s): Balbhadra Jain
Publisher: Kundkund Gyanpith Indore

Page 19

definition. In the endless cycles of rebirth I am a human being in the present incarnation but in my earlier births I may not have been always a human being although I existed. The present human body will not exist always, it will perish. Then I will not have this body; I will not always be a human being, but I will exist always. Therefore, I am neither a body nor a human being based in a body. Then, after all, who am I? What am I? Do I have no independent identity? Will I only be recognized with the help of other things and transient alternatives (paryaya) or do I have some other identity independent of all these? How surprising it is that man, who explores the world and gathers all information, does not even know who he is? He who explores 'the other' fails to explore the 'self'; bothered about 'the other' he is forgetting 'him-self". He is lost in the interaction with 'the other'. He can find the self" if he shifts his search from 'the other' to the 'self". Sincerity of purpose, serious endeavour, and intense curiosity are essential for this. Those who tried to explore thus could know and reach the 'self'.
The identity should be such that it distinguishes me from other things; an identity that is unique. Visible things all around are nonliving (jada or matter). Body, mind, speech are all non-living. They neither know nor see or perform any action of their own volition. It is I, residing in the body, who knows and sees. Driven by me, these things move and perform actions. In my absence they are called non-living. They are living because of me. Distinct from all these I am a being, a soul.(Cetană consciousness) is my attribute and knowledge and bliss are my nature. That is my abiding nature; that is my abiding identity. Irrespective of the genus I was born in and the body I got, my sentient or conscious nature never changed. Thus I am soul, the embodiment or manifestation of consciousness; I am the fundamental and abiding entity endowed with knowledge and bliss.
The reason for not recognizing myself was that till now my awareness of the self was limited to reference points like wife, son, wealth, food-grains, land, property, and this earthly body. I thought that this body is the self and these son, wife, etc. are mine. Separation from these is inevitable; therefore, none of these is the self and neither do they belong to the self. Attachment, aversion, and fondness, originating in the soul too do not define the self, they are mere short lived perversions. I am an abiding entity, my nature is eternal; my attributes
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