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THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SOUL. TINDER the above heading, in the Jaina Gazette for December
1926. is put the following question :-" How can a thing which has not begun in Time. can ever end in Time?" This question is put as a relutation of the Jain doctrine that the bondage of worldly soul with matter is from eternity. The assertion contained in the question that a thing which has not begun in time can never end in time, is no doubt true. Jainism does not, of course, hold that a thing as an entity can ever begin or end in time. According to this Religion Dravya or Vastu (a thing or an entity) is existing from eternity and will exist for ever. But the association or the wedlock of soul and matter is not a thing, it is rather a condition of things. The intermingling of two things is not a thing or an entity, it is a combined state of those two things. It may be from eternity or some particular time, but in neither case can it be the Svabhava or the nature of the things in bondage. The Svabhava or the nature of a thing is that by which that thing exists,- it is its Own-Being or Self-Being. But if in a combination, the combining elements are really two, having their separate and distinct attributes, then that combination, be it from eternity or otherwise, cannot be the Svabhava or the nature of any of the combining elements.
Then there is another point. It is not that Jainism believes in an absolutely-eternal bondage of soul and matter. According to this Religion, the bondage is from eternity as well as from some particular time. With the point of view of Samanya (general) matter or with referenee to Dhara-Parwah (the beginningless successive series) of the inflow of Karma- matter into the soul, the bondage is no doubt from eternity. But with the point of view of Vishesh (particular) matter, it is from non-eternity.--that is, when we look at some particular matter -Karma, we are constrained to say that it came into bondage with soul at some or the other time. There has been no time when the soul was not in bondage with some or the other matter. but each and every particle of matter which has been found in bondage with some soul, has entered into that bondage at some particular time; of
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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