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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM"
omnipresent (vibhu) all pervading. An all-pervasive (i.e., present everywhere) soul would of course be from spatial limitation of the body; indeed the very idea of “dimension” cannot be applied to such an entity at all.
Jaina Ācāryas have rejected the vibhu theory of Hindu doctrine, which call vibhu (all pervasive) to all ātmans. If the ātman is regarded as vibhu, each of them would enter the ātman of God Himself, and each would thereby become a creator of this Universe. "27
Jain as argue that since a soul cannot experience the sorrow or happiness resulting from its karma except in the context of mind, senses and body, any existence of the soul outside that context becomes incompatible wide the function of the karmic mechanism. This line of thought leads directly to the basic Jaina doctrine that a soul is exactly coterminous with the body of its current state of bondage. Even a fully liberated soul (siddha) having completely transcended contact with the material realm, is said by the Jainas to retain the shape and size of that body which it occupied at the time mokṣa was attained.28
According to Hindu or Brahmanical schools, soul is eternal and cannot change whereas for Jains, all existent, whether sentient (jīva or soul) or insentient (ajīva or not-soul) are eternal as substance or dravya and at the same time subject to change as modes or paryāya at every moment. And hence, it is possible in Jaina doctrine for a soul to move, to expand or contract into various shapes and so forth. How, then, can it be said to be eternal? Because, Jainas suggest every existent (sat) possesses a quality called agurulaghutva (neither gross nor subtle) whereby its total
26Dr. Mohan Lal Mehta, “Jaina Philosophy, An Introduction”, 1998, P-103 27 Ibid, 29, P-102 28 Mallisena, “Syādvādamañjari”, edited by J.C. Jain, Bombay, 1970, P-67-7,
See also: Sarvärthasiddhi, 9.4, Ibid (3), P-122 and note No. 5, P-139 29(i) Sarvārthasiddhi, V.2, 5.3,
(ii) Tattvārtha-sūtra, V..29-31
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