Jaina Philosophy

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

Page 94

SOUL
81
recollection of the universal concomitance. There has not been previously seen any connection between soul (major term) and its linga (middle term), the recollection of which, along with the sight of its linga, can lead us to a conviction about the existence of soul."
"The soul is not even within the range of scriptural authority, because scripture is not quite distinct from inference. Moreover, the soul is not directly perceptible to any one whose words make up scripture."?
There is none to whom the soul is an object of direct perception. Had there been any one of that type, his word would have been looked upon as scriptural authority and on the basis of that scripture the existence of soul would have been admitted.
"Furthermore, the scriptural authorities are mutually contradictory. Consequently, on that account, too, the doubt is justifiable. You, therefore, believe that the existence of soul cannot be established by any of the means of valid cognition."}
The existence of soul cannot be established even by the means of analogy, because in the entire universe there is no object whatsoever that resembles the soul.
Even implication does not help in proving the existence of soul. There does not exist any such object seen or heard whose postulation can prove the independent existence of soul.
Thus, when the existence of soul cannot be proved by any of the five means of valid cognition, each of which establishes the existence of an object, it automatically follows that it comes within the range of negation (abhāva), the sixth means of valid cognition whose function is to establish nonexistence.
1. Ibid., 1550-1. 2. Ibid., 1552. 3. Ibid., 1553.