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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
permeating all the corporeal bodies, is seen to be uniformfree from any distinctions. Such is not, however, the case with the soul in question. It is not observed to be uniform, for it differs from body to body (pinda to piņda). Moreover, the difference in characteristics presupposes the difference in those having the characteristics. Hence, the soul is not one in number.'
Here is the illustration : The living beings in this world differ from one another, for there is a difference in their characteristics. As a parallel example, we may mention waterpots etc. Whatever is not different from another object does not differ in characteristics from it. As for example, the sky is everywhere the same. Moreover, if there were only one soul, then there would be nothing like happiness, misery, bondage and em
emancipation. But they do exist. Therefore, all the souls are different and they are not one but many.?
How do the characteristics differ in each body? The soul has upayoga as its characteristic. This upayoga has infinite varieties, for it differs from body to body, some having the utkarsa, i.e., the maximum upayoga, some having the apakarşa, i.e., the minimum upayoga, and some having upayoga between these two extremes. Therefore, souls are of infinite kinds owing to the unlimited varieties of upavoga.
Furthermore, if the number of soul is only one and not more, the soul cannot be an agent, an enjoyer, a thinker and a mundane being. That which is one in number, is not a doer etc. This fact is corroborated by the example of the sky.
Thus, owing to oneness there is no possibility of happiness, misery, bondage, liberation, enjoyment, thinking etc. Su it follows that there are many souls and these souls are equal in extent to the bodies they occupy.
1. Višesāvasyaka-bhāsya, 1581. 2. Visesăvasyaka-bhâsya, 1582. 3. Ibid., 1583.
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