Book Title: Jambudwip Part 02
Author(s): Vardhaman Jain Pedhi
Publisher: Vardhaman Jain Pedhi

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Page 170
________________ dismiss it to the limbo of discredited stand as Voltaire's with respect to superstitions. We cannot stop to con. the soul. They sang sider them all, even mention them "They prate of God! ...... all, in an article of this length. We Let them but tell us what a soul is, then can only cast a very quick glance, or We shall believe in these mad, rather side-glance, at the matter as brainsick men.3 below : Catholic Samkara-Vedanta, which. (1) Says Bertrand Russell, perhaps is therefore not without a skeptic the most royal intellect of our cen- phase to it,4 will agree with all tury, on scientific and mathematical these and much more that might be grounds only on the firm foundation said on the soul in the like or even of unyielding despair can the soul's a worse vein, also because it is per. habitation henceforth be safely built, 1 fectly aware that man with his limi. ted senses, of limited powers, again, (2) Voltaire, a no mean intellect, is by nature a doubting animal...to says 'Four thousand volumes of me whose doubts about the soul, its taphysics cannot teach us what the imortality, God etc., as Samkara says soul is'-2 that is, the existence of somewhere in his works, there can the soul and what it is are highly be no end. When the great Upanishadic questionable.. (Samkara-Vedantic) scholar Naciketas (3) The Ranters, who may be questions Yama, the god of death, described as the left wing of the in the Katha Upanishad about death famous "Seeker Movement in Eng, and the beyond, about the soul, land took more or less the same whether it is or not, whether it is 1 Bertrand Russell quoted in J. W.N. immortal, Yama replies, 'Please do not Sullivan's 'Limitations of science' press me for the answer to the pro(PELICAN, 1933. p. 182). blem of the soul. Here even the gods 2 Voltaire's dictionary article on of yore had doubts. Indeed, it is not the soul. easy to know. Ask for some other 3 The Carol of the Ranters quoted thing, however great, as my third in Rufus Jones's Studies in boon promised to you, and I will Mystrical Religion'. grant it’.1 Thus Samkara-Vedanta 4 Cp. "The Vedanta is more sceptical will agree that there are doubts about or critical than even Kant's Critical and arguments against the soul by philosophy' (Max Muller in his 1 Cf. "Katha Upanishad," I, 9-25 and 'Six Systems', p. 172). Samkara's commentary on them, Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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