Nature of Soul in Jainism Parapsychological View Point

Author(s): N M Kansara
Publisher: Z_Nirgrantha_1_022701.pdf and Nirgrantha_2_022702.pdf and Nirgrantha_3_022703.pdf

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N. M. Kansara
Nirgrantha
which it is made more clear, on the basis of this countlessness and endlessness of the aspects of a soul, that it can pass through the earth, stone, or a mountain, in the same manner as sound? As does a lamp by its light, a soul can fill a small or a big body through these countless modes!!. Since a soul has ten sthānas, and since it is endowed with limited knowledge, it cannot be known fully. Only the Arhats and Kevalis, who have acquired supreme jñana and darśana, can know the dharmāstikaya (ether), the adharmastikaya (gravity), the non-embodied soul, the pudgala (matter), or sabda (sound), gandha (odour), vāta (air), and whether a particular soul would attain to the status of Jina or whether it would be rid of all pains20 From this discussion as found in the agama-texts, it is clearly evident that the original Jaina concept of a soul was based not on any intellectual discussion but rather on the self-experience tantamount to clairvoyance. Now, the question arises : If these statements are based on the self-experience of the clairvoyance class, can they be justified from the researches in parapsychology ? This point becomes all the more important, because there is a curious similarity between the outlook of both the Jaina agama texts and that of the Vedic-Brāhmanic upanisads, particularly pertaining to the status of logic vis à vis self-experience. The parapsychological enquiry into the problem of the nature of soul may help us since the teachings of the Vedic-Brahmanic seers, of Buddha, and of the Nirgrantha Tirthamkaras, which, though differing from each other, may eventually be proven correct in their own ways.
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The Parapsychological Researches Parapsychology is a new branch of science that has developed in the U.S. and in Europe which eventually has been recognized as a 'science at the international level by the Parapsychology Association of veteran scientists, and by the American Association for Advancement of Science, since 196921. (More than two-thirds of the members of the former association are scholars who have been awarded a doctorate degree in the field of parapsychology.) They have collected a large amount of data in the forms of articles and monographs on this subject. And now many new branches of this science, like the telepathy, the psychokinesis, the bio-feed-back-training, the mind-travel, the psychic surgery etc., have developed and researches on these aspects are in progress in 61 different institutes22 In view of our problem pertaining to the nature of soul, researches carried out by some of the scientists is highly relevant. In 1977, a professor of zoology, Sir Aister Hardy of the Manchester College (affiliated to the Oxford University in U. K.), founded a unit called 'Religious Experiences Research Unit' and undertook a project of collecting 5,000 cases of religious experiences. Earlier, till 1974, he had collected 3,500 cases in his record, out of which he has investigated 1,000 cases23. One other scientist of international standing, Hereward Carrington, published a book entitled Modern Psychical Phenomena in which he included a chapter giving an outline of the researches