________________
Time itself is such a medium, It is not bound to space in the manner material things are bound to space. Thus only those concepts which require spatiality, in order for them to be significant, and have a form of existence would alone be Astikāya. Astikāya would also thus mean the body or medium of a concept which makes the concepts exist and cease to be merely a concept. I feel that at some stage Jain philosophers must have confused between the concept of Jīva and the actual Jiva. It need not be added that the concept of Jiva is a logical notion whereas Jiva is an empirical existence,
Let me now understand how the Jain philosophers think of Jiva which is a Dravya and so which eixsts its own right. And here comes a very significant notion of the Jains. First they think that the Jivas are Anantas-infinite. They also think that Jivas are Asankhya-Pradeśas. Pradeśa here means space and by the statement Jivas are Asatiikhya-Pradeśas--what is meant is that different Jivas can have different spatial dimensions. What is admitted here is that the existent Jīvas are spatial in character. Again, if there is a living child then the Jiva of that child has the same extension as the extension of the body. If the child grows the Jiva also grows for there is no part of the living body which is unconscious. The Jivas is regarded as life-coat for the body. It is a cap or a gown which covers every part of the body and is coextensive with it. This Jiva is not ordinarily separable from the body. When it becomes Mukta then like the left-skin of the serpent and the serpent which can be separated, the Jiva and the body are separated. The Jiva in the context of the living body is continuously growing but a Mukta Jiva would not occupy that part of the body where there are empty spaces or hollowness. Thus in the case of a Mukta Jiva there may not be a oneto-one correspondence between the extension cf Jiva and the body, and the extension of the Mukta Jiva may be smaller than his body.
The most important and common-sense element in the whole theory of Jains is this that they agree that consciousness of Jiva cannot exist without space. But this is possible only if Jiva and body are inseparable. But inconsistently with this belief they also believe that at the time of Mukti the Jiva and body can be separated. It is iike taking out a cap of a fountain pen and keeping it away from the fountain pen. In the case of fountain-pen both the fountainpen and its cap are material. But can there be a spatial form which exists and has no material characterization ? It is almost like thinking that there is a form of fragrance as a quality without any material bearer. It is like the Cheshire cat in Alice in the wonderland, which goes away leaving its grin behind. Can there be spatial layer of consciousness without a material body? To think of such layer is in fact to think that consciousness is also material though different from the material body which is non-living. It is holding two belief-systems together in two different chambers. Jain philosophers were toeing the common sense so long as they were thinking that the Jivas had pradeśas. But to think of the Jivas along with pradeśas without body, i.e., Deha, is to mistify and liquidate the common sense. It is the mistake of not distinguishing between vanishing of the phenomenon and separation
- 508 -
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
