Book Title: Jain Legend Vol 2
Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana
View full book text
________________
The real meaning of Pretya (past knowledge)
“Na pretya Samj sti”: Lord Mah v ra explained the meaning of this Vedic sentence, “seeing the pot the soul comprehended its utility, which means that it acquired the knowledge relating to pot. Afterwards at the sight of the cloth, the attention of soul is diverted to it from the pot. To be precise, as soon as the pot disappeared from the sight, its knowledge also got lost and the soul starts thinking about the utility of cloth and acquires knowledge relating to it. With the newly acquired knowledge of the cloth, the old “Pretya” - the past knowledge of a thing - vanishes.
Knowledge actually is not the Dharma of body because knowledge exists irrespective of the presence or absence of an object. Just like pot is different from cloth similarly knowledge is entirely different from body. Since pot and cloth are two different objects, just as in the absence of pot, the cloth remains and in the absence of cloth the pot remains, in the same way, in the living state even while the objects are absent their knowledge exists while in the dead body there is no knowledge even though the objects may be present. So the body and soul are two different entities. Body is the container of the soul whereas the soul is the contained. The knowledge of utility, emotions, doubts etc, is the characteristics of the soul and is formless. However, the body has a form. The traits of a form cannot be formless. That is why the formless attributes like knowledge, etc do not belong to body, but they do belong to soul. Though the soul spreads to all organs and sub-organs of the body, it is different from the body.
Doubt regarding the doctrine of one - Soul
“There are no different souls in the world; there is only one soul that spreads vast, just like the sky.” This doubt arose in the heart of Indrabh ti. Clearing his doubt Lord Mah v ra said in a pleasant tone, “Indrabh ti, a clear sky appears same to everyone. People are not able to see the sky in many different or unique or singular forms. The sky is one. Similarly, there may seem to be only one soul in all the beings in a single form without its multiple identities, peculiarities and exceptionalities. But no such equal form or single form is found in the bodies of living beings. The most important thing is that the characteristics of one living being are entirely different from that of other. So it is apparent that all
50
