Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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OUTLINES OF JAINISM
7. It wanders in samsāra. S. It can become in its perfect condition siddhu. 9. It goes upward.
The cause of its impurity being karmic matter, the nine qualities may, more or less, be derived as consequences of this eternal combination of life and lifelessness. The soul is a dravya; therefore, like every other dravya, it is eternal. Its peculiar attributes are perception and knowledge. It is, of course, different from karma, or matter; therefore it must be immaterial. It has identified itself with matter; therefore it assumes a body, which it must fit. It is responsible for its karmas, because it has the power to get rid of them all. It must reap the harvest of all seeds that it has sown, and therefore must remain in the field of sumsūru, or cycle of existences. And still all these evils are self-assumed; and in its pure condition the soul is siddha (5).
To get at even a working conception of our innermost nature is as difficult to-day as when the philosopher taught his pupils, “Know thyself.” After all, there is a good deal of truth in the saying "After me the deluge”. Nothing can interest me, unless it directly or indirectly relates to me, to the “I”. This “I” is for me the centre of all life and of all theories and ideals of life.
In the Introduction (p. xvii) we have seen the first great question of philosophy and theology to be : “What am I ? What is this soul ?” The duality of inatter and life is evident, except perhaps to the extreme monism of materialism or idealism, which,