Jainism from the View Point of Vedantic Acaryas

Author(s): Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: B J Institute

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Sri Sankarācārya's views on Jainism knowledge. He tried to show that, entire spectrum of Jaina principles can be subjected to the Syädvāda idea and no definite guidance can be had from it. Refutation Dehaparimāņavāda :
Śankara critically considers the various possible size of the soul and then came to the conclusion that the soul cannot have any particular finite size. The soul is according to him, infinite, all-pervasive and omnipresent. He criticises the both view of atomic size of the soul and the Jaina view which considers the size of the soul is of body size. He states that, if the soul is of the size of an atom, if it emits knowledge out of it as its quality, the quality (knowledge) will remain restricted only to the space of the atom; it cannot spread outside of it, as the quality and the substance remain in the same place. Similarly, if the soul were of atomic size, it could not experience the various sensations extending over the whole body, for, the soul would then be localised in some part of the body, due to its atomicity. If again, intelliegence of the soul pervades the whole body, the soul cannot be atomic, since intelligence constitutes the proper nature of it, just as heat and light constitute the essential nature of fire. The qualities cannot be separated from the objects whose qualities they are. For the above mentioned difficulties the soul cannot be atomic (B.S.B., II.III.29). Sankara further points out that, now this is appropriate only in the case of the atomicity of the soul being mataphysical while its infinity is real; for both statements cannot be taken