Jaina View of Life

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

Page 68

The Jaina Theory of the Soul
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Hume says, “when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble upon some perception or other of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never catch myself any time without perception, and never can observe anything but the perception," Hoffding stated that the ego has been looked for in vain as something absolutely simple. The nature of the ego is manifested in the combination of sensation, ideas and feelings. But Herbart maintains that the soul is a simple being not only without parts but also without qualitative multiplicity. Modern psychology has emphasized substantiality, simplicity persistence and consciousness as the attributes of the soul. Descartes has said. “I am the thing that thinks, that is to say who doubts, who affirms..who loves, who hates and feels..," He designates this thing as substance.26
Hamilton advocated the four characteristics with the greatest explicitness. Other prominent names are those of Porter, Calkins, Angell and Aveling.a.
From the phenomenal point of view, jiva is also described as possessing four prānas. They are sense (indriya), energy (bala), life (àyus) and respiration (ana). The Pancāstikayasara gives the same description. The idea of prāna is found in Indian and Western thought. In the Old Testament (Genesis Book I) we read, "The Lord God breathed into the nostril the breath of life and man became a living soul.” In the primitive minds we find the conception that the wind gave men life. When it ceases to blow, men die. In the Navaho legend there is a description of the life force according to which we see the trace of the wind in the skin at the tips of fingers. Prāņas refer to psycho-physical factors of the organism. The jīva assumes the bodily powers when it takes
24. Hume (David): Treatise on Human Nature, Book I, Pt. IV, 6. 25. Descartes : Meditations II. 26. Spearman (C.): Psychology Down the Ages, Vol. I, Ch, XXI,
pp. 391-92.