Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 93

CHAPTER IV
SOUL
The complicated problem of the existence of soul has troubled almost all the great minds of the world. There have been such philosophers who did not believe in an independent existence of soul like the Cārvākas in India and earlier Greek philosophers as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus and the like. In the times of Lord Mahāvīra such thoughts were not altogether absent. He attempted in a successful manner to prove the independent existence of soul. Arguments for the Existence of Soul :
Lord Mahāvīra in the opening presents the views of those opponents who do not believe in an independent existence of soul. "O Indrabhūti ! you have a doubt about the existence of soul (jīva), since it is not directly perceived by the senses as is the case with a jar (ghața). And so you argue that whatever is imperceptible does not exist in the world, e.g., a flower in the sky."
Some one may here argue that though aņus (atoms) are not within the range of perception, yet, they do exist. So what about them? The answer is that no doubt they are imperceptible to us as aņus, but when they are so transformed as to perform the function of a jar etc., they no longer remain so. Such is not, however, the case with the soul. It never attains a stage when it can be directly perceived.
"The soul is not an object of inference, because inference, too, is preceded by perception and is the outcome of the
1. Višeșåvaśyaka-bhāșya, 1549.