Jain Journal 1990 07

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

Page 23

JAIN JOURNAL
A liberated soul is thus unconscious ; so that it must be understood to be the theory of the Nyaya and the Vaisesika systems that a liberated soul cannot be omniscient. Although some of the Naiyayikas hold that there is a feeling of eternal happiness (nitya-sukha) in a soul in its liberated state, it is the common contention of all the Naiyayikas that the liberated soul has no consciousness of the world and its objects. Consequently, the emancipated being is not omniscient.
The Liberated State and Omniscience : The Advaita Vedānta View
According to the Vedanatins of the Advaita (absolute monist) school, neither the bondage nor the emancipation of the soul is real. If from the vyavahāra or empirical standpoint a soul be said to be freed from its state of bondage-even then, omniscience cannot be attributed to the emancipated being. For, a liberated soul is nothing but a soul ‘in itself”; in such a soul, which is absolutely non-dual consciousness there can be no 'internal division' (svagatabheda). And because there is nothing outside it which is similar to or dissimilar from it, there cannot be distinction of it from its similars' (sajātiya bheda) or from its dissimilars (vijātiya-bheda). A liberated soul is not a knower but consciousness itself ; there is nothing beside it.
neha nānyästi kiñcana
Owing to avidyā or false knowledge, of course, there may be consciousness of outside objects in a soul in bondage.
yatra hi dvaitamiva bhavati taditara itaram paśyati
But in its state of liberation, there is nothing outside or beside it so that a liberated soul has no consciousness of objects other than itself.
yatra tasya sarvamātmaivabhūt, tat kena kam paśyet
Accordingly, from the standpoint of the Advaita Vedanta omniscience in a liberated being is impossible.
The Liberated State and Omniscience : The Sānkhya and the Yoga Views
The philosophers of the Sankhya and the Yoga schools maintain that the evolution of the world is due to the conjunction of the prakrti and the puruşa. The soul may be said to be in a state of bondage as