Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

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Jainism
So this beginning of a state implies that before this beginning there was another state of the soul. Nothing can exist unless it exists in some state.
The state may not be permanent, but the thing must have a state at all times. If therefore the present state of the soul had a beginning, it had another state before the beginning of this state, and after the end of his state it will have another state. So the future state is something that comes out of or is the result of the present state. As the future is to the present so the present is to the past.
The present is only the future of the past. What is true with regard to the future state is true with regard to the past and present states. The acts of the past have determined our present state, and if this is true the acts of the present state must determine the future state. This brings us to the doctrines of rebirth, transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, reincarnation etc, as they are variously known. First take incarnation, which means literally becoming flesh and really speaking that which is matter is always matter, and that which is spirit is always spirt or soul. The spirit does not become flesh. If reincarnation means to become flesh there can be no reincarnation, but if it means simply the life in flesh for a short time, then there is reincarnation. Reincarnation means also to be born in some state again and again.
Metem-psychosis means in the Greek only change; that the animal itself, body and soul, everything together, is changed into the human being and the human being, body and soul, is changed into some other being, and that is altogether changed into some other thing and so on. That is the idea of metempsychosis. Transmigration of souls is, especially in the idea of the Christians, the idea of the human soul going into the animal body, as if this were a necessity. But that is not the real idea; the real idea is
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