________________
224
JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM"
same holds good in the case of Jaina's Jiva and Ajīva, which later came to denote animate and inanimate substance respectively. Also, as in Sāṁkhya, so in Jainism, the souls are infinite in number."
The evolution of world has its starting point, in the Sāṁkhya, in the contact (Saṁyoga) between Purușa and the self and Praksti or Primordial matter. This contact does not however mean any kind of ordinary conjunction, but a sort of effective relation through which Prakrti is influenced by the presence of Purusa, more or less in the same way as the Jīva attracts pudgala in Jainism. These are no evolution unless the two become somehow related to each other.
There are differences between Jaina and Sāṁkhya concept of soul. Jainas believe the soul is possessed of infinite perception (ananta-darśana), infinite knowledge (ananta-jñāna) and infinite power (ananta-vīrya) and it is all-perfect. Also souls are infinite in number. They are substances and are eternal. According to Sāṁkhya although souls are many but they are without parts and qualities. They do not contract or expand with their occupation of smaller or larger bodies but are always all pervasive and are not contained in the bodies in which they are manifested. Sāṁkhya's soul is devoid of characteristic such as infinite knowledge, power and perceptions.43
The agreement between Sāṁkhya and Jaina position is really very great. In fact, the Sāmkhya, Vedānta and Jaina school of thought are united in their opposition against the NyāyaVaišeșika theory of soul and its relationship to the knowledge in so far as according to all of the three schools; consciousness is not merely a quality of the soul but is its very nature of the Soul.
4*Dr. Bhattacharyya," Jain Philosophy, Historical Out Line", P-208
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
