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Jaina View of Life
Citta or cetanā as a characteristic of the soul is important in Indian philosophy. In the Dravyasamgrahā, jiva is described as possessing cetanā from the noumenal point of view. Cetanā is a sort of inclination which arises from upayoga. This inclination branches in two directions-jñāna and darśana. Darsana may be said to be undifferentiated knowledge. Jñana is cognition defined. The jiva has infinite jñana and darśana. But certain classes of Karman, like jñānāvaraniya and Darsanavāraṇīya tend to obscure and confuse the essential nature of the jiva. From the phenomenal point of view, darśana and jñāna tend to manifest themselves in eight kinds of jñāna and four kinds of darsana.
The possession of Upayoga raises the question whether the Jiva possesses upayoga and is yet different from it, or whether it is identical with it. The Nyāya theory does not recognise the identity of quality and its possessor. Jainism asserts that only from the phenomenal point of view they are separable. In Pancāstikāyasāra we read “Only in common parlance do we distinguish darsana and jnana. But in reality there is no separation.". The soul is inseparable from Upayoga. Horme is an essential characteristic of the living organisms. It is manifested in the fundamental property experienced in the incessant adjustments and adventures that make up the tissue of life and which may be called drive or felt tendency towards an end." Animal life is not merely permeated by physical and chemical processes; it is more than that. Even the simplest animal is autonomous.
The soul is simple and without parts. It is formless. As the soul is immaterial it has no form. This quality has been mentioned in other systems also. The Jaina thinkers were against the Buddhist idea of the soul as a cluster of khandas. Buddhists do not refer to the permanent soul. It is a composite of mental states called khandas. In modern Western thought
22. Pañcâstikayasära, 41. 23. McDougall (William) : An Outline of Psychology, Ch. 3.
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