Jain Journal 1998 04

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

Page 27

SOGANI: THE CONCEPTION OF DRAVYAS IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
Pudgala are pronounced to be bereft of material qualities of touch, taste, smell and colour, and only Jiva is believed to have possessed consciousness. Hence Dharma, Adharma, Kala and Akasa are destitute of consciousness, as also of material qualities. Thus they should not be misapprehended as being comprised under the category of matter, but under a different category of non-sentiency-cum-non-materiality. As for Dharma, Adharma and Akasa, each of them is considered to be one, while Jiva and Pudgala are infinite; and Kāla is innumerable. 15 Besides Dharma, Adharma, Akasa and Kāla are by nature non-active and the remaining two are active. 16
Nature of self:
Having discussed the general nature of the six substances, we now proceed to deal with their specific nature. We start with Jiva (self).
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The problem of self is the most fundamental in the domain of philosophy. Since the dawn of philosophical speculation down to the present time it has vexed great philosophers and led them to formulate different conceptions consistent with the metaphysical outlook upheld by them. With Jainism though the probing into the nature of self is not a new enterprise, the special point of the Jaina view consists in substantiating the notion of self without blinking the loftiest mystical heights on the one hand and without condemning the unabstracted experience as sheer illusion on the other. The self, as an Ontologically underived fact, is one of the six substances subsisting independently of anything else. The experience of knowing17 feeling18 and willing undeniably proves the existence of self. The Kärttikeyānuprekṣā recognises that the self is to be regarded as possessing supreme significance among the substances and as having the highest value among the Tattvas. 20 It is the repository of excellent characteristics.21 It is the internal Tattva. It is to be distinguished from the other substances which are merely external, since they are without any knowledge of things to be renounced and accepted,22 Kundakunda in the Pravacanasara calls it Mahārtha (a great objectivity23). It is neither 15. Gomma. Ji 587; Tsu. V. 6.
16. Sarvartha. V 7; Panca. 98. 17. Acaranga 1 1.5 p. 50
18. Kartti. 183.
19. Kartti. 184.
20. Kartti. 204. 21. Ibid....
22. Kartti 205.
23. Parva II. 150.