Jinamanjari 2002 04 No 25

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 50

Jinamañjari, Volume 25, No.1, April 2002
JAIN PHILOSPHER KUNDAKUNDA AND
VEDĀNTIN ŚANKARĀCĀRYA
Jagdish Prasad Jain "Sadhak, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
The eminent Professor and Jainologist Dr. T.G. Kalghatgi noted that the word ātman is little used in the Vedas, where, it primarily meant breath; the Upanişads use another word prāņa for breath, and ātman stands for the innermost part of man.
In introduction to his work Bhashya, Sankarācārya (circa. Eighth C.E.) who hailed from southern part of India, has interjected opinionated subjective views freely on the nature, life and the things with no constrains whatsoever to follow the textual sutra forms. What is more interesting is that this introduction contains several ideas that correspond closely to those of Jain philosopher Kundakunda, the earliest recorded philosopher to hail from South Indian region during the beginning of the Common Era (8 B.C.E to C.E. 48).
The Jaina notion of the Self and the non-Self as two entirely distinct entities have been philosophized by Kundakunda in his exhaustive critical works. Since Jainism considers the soul from two points of view, Kundakunda also has explained the distinction between niscaya (noumenal) and vyvahāra (phenomenal) views.
Correspondingly, Sankarācārya maintains that the Self and the non-Self as two entirely distinct entities, and also makes distinction between vyavahara and niscaya, which he calls it as paramarthic.
The two entities, Self and non-Self, have no common nature and no common attributes. One is chetan (subject or vishayin) and the other achetan (object or vishaya) or jada. In other words, the two are as much opposed to each other as light and darkness."
According to Sankarācārya the attributes of the one cannot be transferred or superimposed upon the other. But our practical life
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