Jainism from the View Point of Vedantic Acaryas

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

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Jainism from the view point of Vedantic Acāryas
infinite in number, when the soul has a limited extent of the body. It cannot be even imagined that the soul that is limited by the size of the body should have infinite parts. ( अपि च शरीरमात्रपरिच्छिन्नानां जीवावयवानामानन्त्यं न
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fg4f | B.S.B., II.II.34). The Jainas may say in reply that the particles join or fall away as the occasion for the soul is to enter into a large or a small body. (अथ पर्यायेण बृहत् शरीरप्रतिपत्तौ केचित् जीवावयवा उपगच्छन्ति तनुशरीरप्रतिपत्तौ च केचित् अपगच्छन्ति इति उच्येत । B. S.B., II. II. 34 ) .
Śankara argues that, even by admitting the increase and descrease of parts of the soul in succession, it is not possible to establish beyond contradiction the fact that the soul confirms to the size of the body. This view implies that soul is capable of undergoing change. In the first instance, mutability becomes unavoidable for the soul that increases and decreases for ever through the accession and deplation of parts. And if it be mutable like a piece of leather (or skin), it will be subject to impermanence. If it is non-eternal, impermanent, subject to destruction, everchanging, then bondage and liberation cannot be predicated of it. This view would go against the Jaina doctrine of bondage and liberation of the soul. Jainas believe that the soul surrounded by eight kinds of Karma (aṣṭavidha karma) remains sunk in the sea of this world (Samsara) like a bottle ground and it floats upward when that bond is snapped (न च पर्यायेणापि अवयवोपगमापगमाभ्यामेतद् देहपरिमाणत्वं जीवस्य अविरोधेन उपपादयितुं शक्यते । कुत: ? विकारादिदोषप्रसङ्गात् । अवयवोपगमापगमाभ्यां हि अनिशमापूर्यमाणस्य अपक्षीयमाणस्य च जीवस्य