Jaina View of Life

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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Approach to Reality
Again, the problem of body and mind was answered by Mahavira as "The body, O Gautama. is identical with the soul and not identical with the soul in different respects."
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The application of the principle of Anekanta can be seen in their analysis of the metaphysical question concerning the categories. The Jaina theories of atoms, of space and soul, to mention a few instances, illustrate the pervading influence of the Anekanta view-point. Atoms are of the same kind : they can yet give the infinite variety of things. Pudgala has certain inalienable features, but within limits it can become anything through qualitative differentiation. The transmutation of elements is quite possible in this view and is not a mere dream of the alchemist.
Space is another instance of a manifold real. It is uncorporeal and formless, yet divisible" and its divisibility is a spontaneous feature. Abhayadeva develops the concepts of manifoldness of space as a polemic against the Naiyayika view of space as one and partless. The souls are individual centres of experience. Like the Leibnizian monads the soul mirrors the entire universe within self as a unique centre of experience. The universe it mirrors is infinitely complex; and its experimental powers must be manifold commensurate with the complicity of the experienced universe."
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In the Anga literature of the Jainas the doctrine of Anekānta was briefly and incidentally discussed. But in the commentaries of the Jaina scripture written in Prakrit it has received greater attention. But when the Sanskrit language found a place in the Jaina literature, it occupied an important
8. Bhagavati Sutra. VIII, 7, 495, and Bhagavati Sūtra VII, 2, 273, 9. Hiriyanna (M.): Outlines of Indian Philosophy (Allen Unwin) 1931 p. 212.
10. Prameya-kamala-mārtaṇḍa: Prabhācandra ed. 1948, pp. 563 and
11. Padmarajiah (Y. J.): Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge p. 283.
642.