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JAINA VIEW OF SOUL COMPARED WITH ...
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conviction that the Divine has never been really absent from the soul, that it is always there though covered by darkness or nescience, and that as soon as that darkness or that nescience is removed the soul is once more and in its own right nature what it always has been, it is - it does not became - Brahma.“
William James"? puts it (in appreciation of Śāṁkara's Vedānta as presented by Swami Vivekananda in America); “The Paragon of all monistic systems is the Vedānta, philosophy of Hindustan.” It is true that such a system fails to appeal to those who turn to philosophy for the justification of their imperfect ideas, distinctions and worldly values. Like the teaching of early Buddhism and Jainism, the monistic philosophy of Saṁkara is only for the strong-hearted who can follow logic dauntlessly and face conclusions, however, subversive of ordinary ideas of reality and value.
Yogindudeva," a Jaina Ācārya mentioned in Paramātmaprakāśa that more than once Upanişad's passages distinguish the body from soul. The distinction of Jīvātman and Paramātman in Nyāya-Vaišeșika is quite famous. In later period, Rāmadāsa speaks of four kinds of ātman: Jīvātman, one limited to the body; Śivātman, one that fills the Universe; Paramātman, one that fills the space beyond Universe; and Nirmalātman, one who is pure intelligence with spatial connotation and without taint of action. But all these, according to Rāmadāsa, are ultimately one."
He is in the world and yet out of it. This conception of Šamkara has become well known in later Vedānta as ‘Jīvanamukti', the liberation of one when one is alive. It is the state of perfection attained here. Like Buddha, the Sāṁkhya, the Jaina and some other
16VRG, Ibid., p. 84 "Dr. Chatterjee & Datta, An Introduction To Indian Philosophy, P-412
Paramātma-prakāśa of Sri Yogindudeva, Ed. by Dr.A.N.Upadhye, 1960,P-31 19 Ibid, , P-31 and Vol. VII, See also Mysticism in Maharashtra, P-386
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