Jain Journal 1969 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 27

18
and Brāhmaṇas who maintain in sixteen ways, that the soul after death is conscious and it is not subject to decay. The sixteen ways are as follows :14
(i) Soul has form (rūpi attă hoti arogo param maraṇā saññā). (ii) Soul is formless (arūpi attā hoti arogo param maraṇā). (iii) Soul has and has not form (rūpi ca arūpi attā hoti).
(iv) Soul neither has nor has not form (nevarūpi narūpi attā hoti). (v) Soul is finite (anta attā hoti).
(vi) Soul is infinite (ananta attā hoti).
(vii) Soul is both (antava ca anantava ca attā hoti). (viii) Soul is neither (nevantavā nānantavā ca attā hoti). (ix) Soul has one mode of consciousness (ekattasaññi attā hoti). (x) Soul has various modes of consciousness (nānattasaññi attā hoti). (xi) Soul has limited consciousness (parittasaññi attā hoti). (xii) Soul has infinite consciousness (appamānasaññi attā hoti). (xiii) Soul is altogether happy (ekāntasukhi atta hoti). (xiv) Soul is altogether miserable (ekāntadukkhi attā hoti). (xv) Soul is both (sukhadukkhi attā hoti). (xvi) Soul is neither (adukkhamasukhi attā hoti).
JAIN JOURNAL
A list of sixteen theories regarding the nature of soul is also referred to in the Udana.15 The topics listed there are said to be debated by many Samanas and Brāhmaṇas and they give views about the Soul which bear similarity with those we find in a section of Uddhamāghātanikā Saññivada. The same points are also treated somewhat differently in the list of undetermined questions. 16 The questions have been discussed at several other places in Pali literature.17
Out of these views mentioned above, the thoughts of Nigantha Nataputta can be detected. As we know, Buddhaghosa thought that Jainism was a combination of eternalism and nihilism. If this is due to an early Buddhist tradition, Nigantha Nataputta's view might have been recorded in Pali literature under these two sections. The Sassatavāda indicated the eternity of the soul which should have been mentioned from the realistic standpoint and Uccedavāda points out the non-eternity of the soul which should have been explained from practical standpoint. The soul is eternal and has consciousness according to niscayanaya, and it is non-eternal and is a subject of change in its modifications
14 Ibid., i. 32.
15 Udana, p. 67.
16 D. i. 187; M. i. 431; Dharmasangraha, 137.
17 Cf. D. i. 195; S. ii. 60.