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THE JAINA DOCTRINE OF SOUL 79 and enjoyer-hood of the Soul. According to the Sankhya, the Purusha or the Soul is 'eternal, absolutely pure, intelligent and free.' It is absolutely unattached to anything; is desireless : self-identical; and is never a doer or agent. It has no interest in or connection with the cosmic course. It is the Prakriti which on account of its proximity to the Soul evolves the universe; the Purusha, on the contrary, never does any act; nor enjoys the fruit of any action. It is absolutely passive (Niskriya) and a strict non-enjoyer (Abhokla). Just as the Noumenal Self of Kant has no connection with the Phenomenal psychical course, the Purusha of the Sankhya is absolutely unrelated to the phenomenal course of the world.
But the question that arises in connection with the above Sankhya position is: If the Soul is not an active agent, what is it that gets Bondage and what is it that is Emancipated? What is it that strives after salvation? Ii the Soul does not enjoy pleasure or pain, how is the evolution or course of the world possible? To avoid these difficulties, the philosophers of the Nyaya school reject the doctrines of the Soul's non-agent-hood and non-enjoy er-hood and attribute to it the qualities of joy, activity etc. In this respect, the Jaina system may be said to agree with the Nyaya; they both repudiate the doctrine of the Soul's absolute indifference.
In criticism of the Sankhya theory, the Jainas point out that if the Soul be held to be absolutely inactive, the act of perception also would be impossible for it. 'I hear,'_ 'I smell,' everyone has got such feelings; this shows that the theory of the Soul's absolute inactivity is opposed to the experience and feeling of all men. It cannot be said that the feeling of 'I hear,' 'I smell' etc., are due to Ahamkara or the principle of Egoism; for, then, the act of perception which the Sankhya philosophers themselves attribute to the Sou!, may also be said to be due to Ahamkara. It is accordingly to be admitted that the Soul is an active agent. Another contention of the Sankhya is that the Soul in itself does not enjoy anything but that the fact of enjoyment is foisted upon it, so to say. Pleasure and pain are grasped by Buddhi or the principle of Intelligence and Buddhi is an evolute Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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