Jain Journal 1983 04

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

Page 18

122
nature.
Absolute quite beyond the empirical properties because they hold that the attributes and characteristics of empirical self are entirely different and alien to the nature of the absolute Self. The empirical self may be characterised and attributed but the absolute Self is quite beyond the ambit of our rational and relational capacity. Acarya Kundakunda also agrees with Sankara upto this point and emphasizes the same fact when he says that all other mental attributes are alien to "me". But he does admit the attributes of pure perception and pure knowledge in supreme self which remain present in it even after transcending the empricial He maintains difference between the properties of pure perception and pure knowledge of supreme Self and the process of perceiving and knowing associated with the empirical self. He further elaborates it that though in the latter case the properties are called by the same names, they are entirely limited by physical conditions whereas the properties of pure perception and pure knowledge associated with the supreme Self are the unlimited and unconditioned manifestations of the supreme Self itself. So, pure perception and pure knowledge are the intrinsic properties of the pure Self, since manifesting entity cannot be different from the manifestation. To make more clear we can say that for Kundakunda the pure Self is considered to be apart from the attributes and characteristics of empirical self but it should not be abstracted from all attributes as the Vedantins do. Pure perception and pure knowledge are not such attributes which can be transcended by supreme Self because they are the attributes of the supreme consciousness and the intrinsic properties of itself, as stated above. If supreme self will transcend them, it will remain merely an empty abstraction and it will harm the universal postulate that there can be no reality without its attributes. If for arguments sake we hold that a general substratum can exist without its attributes, the position will be untenable because a conscious self without the attributes of pure perception and pure knowledge will practically be unconscious entity which contradicts the nature of supreme Self. Pure knowledge is identical to supreme Self.
The concept of bondage is also considered from the different points of view. From the empirical (vyāvahārika) point of view karmas (actions) bind the Self and are 'n contact with it, but from the real (niscaya) point of view karmas (actions) neither bind nor are in contact with the Self. So, from the different points of view the Self is either bound or free." But Kundakunda asserts that Samayasāra or supreme Self in-itself is beyond these both points of view. The essence of the self transcends these aspects-vyāvahārika and niscaya. To make it more clear it is
Samayasara, gatha 298-99. 'Samayasara, gatha 141.
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