Jainism and Democracy

Author(s): Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: I A S S Jain Conference New Delhi

Page 95

JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
consciousness without soul. This consciousness expresses itself in all the psychological functions of knowing, feeling and willing. The first, i.e. knowing is its natural and pure manifestation while the remaining two are mixed. In feeling consciousness is mixed with the effect of Vedaniya karman (see theory of karma) and in willing with that of Mohaniyakarman. But knowing is natural. Here, the soul does depend upon any external assistance. As there is heat in the fire and coolness in the water, similarly, we have knowledge in the soul.
A question arises if knowledge is a natural and permanent attribute why it is phenomenal. It appears after some positive effort and vanishes automatically. Similarly, when all the souls possess this attribute equally, why there is inequality in knowledge. Jainism replies these objections through the theory of obscurance. Out of the eight Kurmans accepted by Jainism the first, second, fourth and eighth are known as ghatins. They put obstructions in the natural expression of soul. The first two are related with the obstruction of conscious manifestation. They are compared with a cloud obscuring the light of the sun. The removal of that obscurance is necessary for knowledge. The liberated soul, which is free from this obscurance, gets the full manifestation, Infinite knowledge dawns there in full bloom without any external dependence. There, it is constant as well as similar in all states and persons. Mind and the Senses :
The mind and each of the senses are divided into two aspects, i.e. the physical aspect and spiritual. In