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JULY, 1976
of religion/moral progress. Otherwise human life would not have been a moral life, human beings could not have been distinguished from other creatures. So, that there are mukta Jīvas is a fact that appears quite plausible and there is overwhelming philosophical argument in its favour. It is also a fact that mukta Jivas are not many in number; most of the Jivas--are baddha Jivas. These Jivas become mukta when bandhana is removed.
Jaina philosophy does not think that every Jiva by the very fact of its existence is mukta and bandhana is only an appearance. Niscaya Naya maintains that Jīvas are essentially conscious and they are not capable of pudgala-karmas; but Vyavahāra thinks otherwise. Vyavahāra Naya maintains that Jivas pass through fourteen stages (gunasthānas) for moksa. Suddha Naya suggests that Jīvas are really possessed of its characteristics, viz., knowledge, bliss, etc. and the stages of development are attributed to them only from the common sense point of view. Fundamentally sīvas are the possessors of infinite knowledge and bliss.
This apparent dichotomy in regard to the nature of the Jiva may be plausibly explained. When the Jiva is characterized from the point of view of the ideal it is capable of achieving it has to be described in the way in which Suddha Naya does it. But experientially and existentially Jivas are of different kinds and are at different levels of progress towards the goal. The religious/moral march is gradual and real. The Jiva is not existentially mukta, It has to work out its liberation. The existence of mukta Jivas proves the worthwhileness of the urge for mokşa. So, moksa is not praptasya prāpti-- it is a matter of progressive achievement.
There are numberless Jivas and they have been classified from different points of views. From one point of view they are classified with the help of number senses they possess. There are Jivas with one sense, two senses, three senses, four senses and five senses. Human beings come at the top of these classes with five indriyas and the internal indriya manah. Not all Jivas are capable of attaining mokşa. It is only the human beings that are for it. So, mokşa is predominently anthropocentic. Other Jivas have to develop to the stage of human beings for becoming worthy of mokşa. We need not enter in the controversy regarding the limitation of a particular class (sex) of human beings for realizing moksa.
Jivas are agents. Through their activities Jīvas are associated with the influx of matter and this process of activity is beginningless. Niscaya
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