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THE JAINA GAZETTE
nama) or the aspects (Vivarta) of the non-dual Brahman which is the only reality. The thinkers of this Advaita-vada school contend that that one Paramatman is present in, permeates and informs all the finite Souls and that there is no other Soul or reality besides it. The Vedanta philosophy is somewhat similar in this respect to the pantheistic systems of the West.
The Jaina philosophy, on the contrary, does not subscribe to the extreme monism of the Vedanta. According to the Jaina thinkers, the Jivas or the Souls are infinite in number and every Soul is different from the other in some respects. If the Souls were not mutually exclusive and different and were but one and the same, one might have expected to find the happiness, the misery, the bondage or the emancipation of all the Souls with the happiness, the misery, the bondage or the emancipation of one Soul respectively. The varied conditions of the Souls have led the Sankhya philosophers to reject the monistic position of the Vedanta and admit the reality of many Souls. The Jainas also maintain that the soul is different in each body' and thus agree with the thinkers of the Sankhya school in upholding the doctrine of the multiplicity of the Souls.
With regard to the Advaita contention, the Jaina philoscphers point out that on examination, a group of attributes e.g., existence, conciousness, joy etc., will be discovered which are found in all the Souls. If we fix our attention to this group of common attributes, all the Souls or Jiva's may be said to be one and identical in nature; for, this group of qualities is inherent in every Soul. The Vedanta position is true up to this point. But the above common attributes do not make up the whole of a Jiva; every Soul has its peculiarity as well. This peculiarity or individuality of a Soul differentiates it from another. If there were not this principle of separateness, all the Souls would have been emancipated as soon as one Soul attained salvation. It is because there is this element of particularity in each Soul, that the theory of the multiplicity of the Souls is to be admitted.
The Sankhya and the Jaina philosophical systems, similar as they are so far as the doctrine of the plurality of Souls is concerned, differ, however, with respect to the theories of 'agent-hood" Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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