Jain Journal 1990 07

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

Page 29

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the Nyaya, the Vaisesika, the Buddhist and the Advaita monists of the Vedanta school are agreed. But those philosophers of the Vedanta school who do not admit the identity of the Brahman and the jiva, hold a different view. According to them, the liberated jiva becomes omniscient, and the grounds for this view of the dualistic Vedantists are obvious. They do not admit the reality of the absolute and the undetermined (Nirguna) Brahman. The Brahman, according to them, is 'Saguna' i.e., determined and endowed with attributes. The absolute monists of the Vedanta school maintain that it is impossible to ascribe omniscience or any qualification to the liberated soul which is merged in the attribute-less Brahman. Even these monists do not deny that a soul which is by dint of its self-culture and self-development has succeeded in closely associating itself with the qualified or the Saguna Brahma attains omniscience. The Vedantins, other than the absolute monists hold that Brahman is 'Saguna' or qualified and that the absolute, unqualified, or the Nirguna Brahma is an unreal abstraction, that the mukti or emancipation of a soul consists in its inseparable association with (and not an absolute merger in) the Saguna Brahma and that such a liberated soul comes to be possessed of the qualities of the Lord, including omniscience.
It seems to us, however, that the omniscience thus attributed to the liberated soul by the dualistic schools of the Vedanta, is not of the same nature or extent with the omniscience, attributed to the Isvara by the Nyaya, the Vaisesika, the theistic Sankhya, the Yoga and the Vedanta. The omniscience of the latter is eternal, unfittered and allembracing. It is, however, the very nature of the jiva to have but a limited range of apprehension and this limited capacity of the jiva is not radically changed, even when it attains liberation. Accordingly, it would probably not be correct to say that all the cosmic things and phenomena of all times and places, beginningless and endless are ever present in the omniscience of the liberated jiva, as now and 'here', simultaneously. Even when a soul associates itself with the Lord in its emancipated state, its powers are still limited, in comparison with the powers of the latter. A liberated soul, for instance, has no power to interfere in or modify the jagat-vyāpāra-i.e., the creation of the world,--which is the sole prerogative of the Isvara. It is true that a liberated soul comes to be possessed of many supernatural powers; it can go anywhere it likes,
sarveşu lokeşu kama-caro bhavati
JAIN JOURNAL
-Chandogya-Upanisat, 7.25. 2.