Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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180 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
It is probably due to the fact that Jainism itself has a materialistic tendency. As Pandit Sukhlalji Sanghvi has observed quite correctly: "Starting with an analysis (of the real) into different substances (dravya) the system no doubt goes to the length of analysing even the subtlest modes (paryāya), but in spite of its accepting the reality of the modes that are the final resultants in this analytic process the Jaina does not reject the reality of permanent substances as will do the Buddhist. Likewise, starting with the synthesis of the modes and the substances, the Jaina system ultimately arrives at the one principle of reality (sat-tattva), but it does not deny in the manner of Brahmavada reality to the diversity of substances and to the modes that are the resultants in the analytic process. All this was possible because Jainism relatively acknowledge the equal competence (tulya-bala) and equal truth (samāna-satya) of two standpoints, viz. the standpoint of substance (dravyārthika dṛṣṭi) and the standpoint of modes (paryayärthika drṣti). Consequently, we do not find in it either extreme analysis as we do in Buddhism or extreme synthesis as we do in Vedanta. And this, in turn, is why the realistic nature of the Jaina standpoint remained unaltered in essence."1
According to the Carvākas, there is no soul. This conclusion is based upon the following arguments. There is no soul apart from the body. Thus, the soul is nothing but the living body itself with the quality of consciousness. But this consciousness is not the quality of any unperceived non-material or spiritual entity. It exists in the perceptible living body composed of the material elements and hence it must be a quality of the body itself. Just as the quality of intoxication emerges in the wine through the mixing up of certain ingredients, not intoxicant by themselves, required for its production, so also what is called consciousness is nothing but epiphenomenon or by-product of matter, which has no existence independent of the body. But the Jains are not ready to admit that there is no soul apart from the body or that consciousness is the effect of matter, resulting out of the combination of material elements that constitute the body. If that be the case, there will be no absence of consciousness so long as the body exists. Loss of consciousness in sleep, fainting or in a dead body will then be impossible. Moreover, there is no concomitance between the body and consciousness; the development and decay in the former are not
1ASILM, p. 3.