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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
realised outside the body. Consequently, it should be taken to be non-existent there.'
To refute this conclusion of the Jaina, the Naiyāyika urges in the course of his answer that the adrşța (karma) of our atman is supposed to act even at a distance and it cannot be there hanging in the air without an underlying substratum ; consequently, our ātman must be supposed to be existing even there. Since adrșța works everywhere, the underlying substance, viz., ātman must also exist everywhere.
The Jaina gives a counter argument. He denies that adrsta is acting there and everywhere. Things, according to him, have their own nature - a fact which is ultimate and does not admit of question or explanation - and that nature is not caused by adrșța. Fire burns, because it has got the nature of burning. We cannot say that fire burns, because adrşğa is there. It burns of itself.
Secondly, to say that the nature of the things are determined by adrsta is to leave no room for God.
Thirdly, since they hold that ātmans are many, if each of them is vibhu (all-pervasive) also, as they believe, what a wonderful clash and interpenetration of ātmans would ensue? Moreover, each of them would enter the atman of God Himself, and each would thereby become a creator, for they believe that God is the creator of this universe.
It may be further urged : Unless an ātman was vibhu, how could it draw to itself the particles of the body in which it has to dwell in the next life? The Jainas reply that it is not necessary for the ātman to be vibhu for drawing the particles of the body, because if it is so, our body will be equal in extent to the whole universe, for our ātman is all-pervasive. If we accept the argument that to draw the particles of the body the soul must be all-pervasive, our body will be of a horribly vast size, because our soul will draw to itself all the particles of the universe.
1. Viseşāvasyaka-bhāsya, 1586.
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