________________
and thus every mundane self is potentially siddha, and this siddhahood needs be actualized in the interest of arriving at the supreme summit of religious experience. It is not idle to point out that though we are in the defiled form of existence from the beginningless past, the niscaya-naya (transcendental view) reminds us of our spiritual magnificence and glory. It prompts the sullied self to behold its spiritual heritage. When the self has ascended to the pinnacle of spiritual experience, the vyavahāra-naya (empirical view) is of no significance for the aspirant. The vyavahāra-naya which points to our slumbering state in the domain of spiritualism applies to our saṁsārī state, while the niścaya-naya which indicates our transcendental spiritual nature is applicable to siddha state in us. To say that every empirical self is potentially divine (siddha) is to say that it is basically possessing infinite knowledge, infinite bliss and infinite energy. Thus spiritual realization consists in the full manifestation of the cognitive, affective and conative potencies inherent in the self. Let us now discuss the nature of self from the aforesaid perspectives.
First, the vyavahāra-naya tells us that the empirical self owns at least four prāņas (one sense, one bala, life-limit and breathing) and at best ten prānas (five senses, three balas, lifelimit and breathing). The lowest in the grade of existence are the one-sensed souls. They possess four prāņas, namely, sense of touch, bala of body, life-limit and breathing, and they are of four kinds, namely, earth-bodied, water-bodied, fire-bodied, air-bodied and vegetable-bodied selves. As we move higher on the ladder of biological existence, we have two-sensed to five-sensed selves having six, seven, eight, nine and ten prāņas respectively. We may point out in passing that it is only the five-sensed human selves who are capable of unfolding their potential divinity. In contradistinction to vyavahāra-naya, the niscaya-naya points out that knowledge-consciousness (jñāna-cetanā) is the real prāņa of self. It is by virtue of this that the self is distinguished from other substances. The noumenal view does not take any note of the ten prānas, but keeps its eyes fixed on the essential life of the self, namely, knowledge-consciousness. Jaina Mysticism and other essays
17
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
