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THE JAINA DOCTRINE OF SOUL 179 that account. The soul has no Shape ; accordingly, it enters into the Body just as the Mind does so. The Jainas point out that Water etc., which are grossly en-shaped matter can easily enter into ashes etc., why, then, would it be, impossible for the soul which has no shape to enter into the Body? Next,—when the soul assumes the bigger form of an adult-body, it must be understood to have left aside the smaller form of the child-body. There is no inconsistency here. It is possible for the soul to assume different forms by means of expansion or contraction just as a snake may expand itself and assume a bigger form by leaving aside the quiscent and smaller form and vice oersa. If you view the soul through its varied states and modifications, it must be admitted that the soul undergoes change and is noneternal in that respect. But substantially, it is immutable and eternal. As regards the objection that the soul is cut when the Body is cut, the Jaina theory is that when a portion of the Body is cut off, a portion of the soul does extend to the sundered part of the Body. Tremors etc., are often found in such sundered parts of the Body; these are inexplicable unless you admit the existence of a part of the soul in these separated parts of the Body. Of course, no new soul comes into these parts: what persists there is nothing but a part of the soul, which dwells within the Body and is of the same extent with it. The soul continues to be one, although the Body is divided into two. It is possible for one and the same soul to exist in the two separated parts of the Body just as one and the same soul permeates the varied parts of one Series of knowledge. The soul is not really cut in two; it simply extends itself to the sundered parts of the Body. It is for this reason that the whole soul is once more found in the living portion of the maimed Body. The philosophers of the Jaina school establish in this way that there can be no valid objection to their doctrine that the soul is of the same extent as the Body.
After setting aside the Nyaya objections in the above manner, the Jainas advance the following positive argument. *The soul is not all-pervasive; because it is conscious; whatever
is all-pervasive is not conscious; as for instance, the Sky: the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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