Jaina View of Life

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

Page 61

Jaina view of Life
Jacobi calls it psyche. “This is the development of the primitive notion of life after death lingering in some form. It is found even today in the practice of sraddha. The psyche is frequently spoken of as puruşa and of the size of the thumb (anguşthamatra). At the time of death it departs from the body. In the oldest Upanişads the psyche is described as constituted by the prā ņas, psycho-physical factors. Still, these factors were not regarded as principles of personality.
II. The idea of the soul has occupied an important position in Jaina philosophy. Jainism aims at the liberation of the soul from the cycle of birth and death. The saving of the soul is the Christian ideal. In the Apology, Plato makes Socrates say that his mission was to get men to care for their souls and to make them as good as they can be.
Jainism is dualistic. There is a dichotomous division of categories. All things are divided into living and non-living, souls and non-souls. In the first verse of the Dravyasamgraha, we read, “The ancient among the great Jainas have described the dravyas as jīva and ajiva". Jiva is a category, and jiva personalised becomes ātman. Jainism believes in the plurality of souls. Souls are substances distinct from matter. Souls influence one another. But they are quite distinct from one another and not connected in any higher unity. They may be called spiritual monads. Jainism emphasizes the diversity of souls. Amongst the Muslim theologians, Nazam and his school maintained that the soul is a spiritual substance.
Jainism considers the soul from two points of view : the noumenal (niscaya naya) and the phenomenal (vyavahāra naya). The Dravyānuyogatarkaņā of Bhoja describes the distinction as mentioned in the Viseşāvasyakabhāşya by saying that the niscaya narrates the real things and the vyavahāra narrates things in a popular way. In the Samayasāra, Kundakundācārya points out that the practical standpoint is essential
5. Jacobi (Hermann): Studies in Jainism,
Indian Thought.
The Place of Jainism
in