Nyaya Science of Thought

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 12

6
for the
numerous atoms of conciousness are really only so many concrete individuals. On the other hand, if it be said that consciousness is an indivisible existence, then it must be all-pervading, so as to be able to enter into the constitution of every living being at different places in the world. But on this hypothesis the real knower or source of knowledge being one and the same throughout the universe, there should be no differences in respect of knowledge among the individuals, which is not the case, as every one's experience shows.
There is only one other alternative, and that is that the quality is all-pervading but the differences in knowledge depend on the nature of individuals themselves; but in this case knowledge ceases to be a property of consciousness, and becomes dependent on the nature of souls, for if it were a function of an indivisible and all-pervading quality knowledge of one soul, wherever acquired, would immediately become the common property of every other soul, on the ground of the real knower being only one and the same.
6
NYAYA.
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It follows, therefore, that consciousness cannot be separated from the soul. The absurdity of the opposite view may be further emphasized by studying the nature of both when separated from each other.
Firstly, consciousness separated from a knowing