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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM”
specify Moksa as the goal of its striving, indirectly it does. If, however, we take Pūrva and Uttara-Mīmāṁsā as forming on system of thought, then we may declare that without exception, Indian philosophers set forth Moksa as ultimate goal and affirm that it may be attained in this life.
Mīmāṁsakas, like the Nyāya-Vaiseșikas, regard the soul as eternal, consciousness as its adventitious attribute dependent upon its relation to the body. Since Mimāṁsakas School belongs to the ritualistic period of the Vedic culture, the final destination of an individual soul is regarded as the attainment of heaven (svarga). But later on, the idea of heaven is replaced by the idea liberation, because the concept of heaven was indeed a state of unalloyed bliss (at least temporary), whereas, the state of liberation is free from pleasure and pain. 10
Nyāya-vaiseșika considers ātman to be ultimate and eternal substance and not one; that they believe in plurality of ātmans. In the highest state of Mokșa, self-ātman does not have any experience or consciousness; it is pure sattā (reality)." It does not experience pure consciousness or pure bliss because the accidental quality of consciousness of soul is absent. So Nyāva-Vaisesika says that the highest state of Moksa is absolute freedom from misery and there is no possibility of the recurrence of misery in any form.
In the state of Mokşa, the nine attributes of soul, like intellect, happiness, misery, desire, hatred, will, punya (merit) and pāpa (demerit) do not exist. That is in the state of Moksa the Nyāyavaiseșika lays emphasis on the absolute cessation of misery and its causes and cessation of happiness also."
In Nyāya, school, consciousness has not been regarded as an essential inseparable attribute of the soul. Consciousness arises, when it is related to the mind, which in turn is related to the senses, and the senses related to the external objects. So in the disembodied
1° Mānameyodaya, V.20 “Brhadāranyaka Up., 5.6.1; Chāndogya Up. 5.18.1 - Vaišesika-sūtra, 5.2.18
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