________________
Introduction
41
How Yogindu Proposes Unity--Inspite of the above difference Joindu speaks just almost in the Upanişadic tone, of the identity between Paramātmans by appealing to aspirants not to distinguish one Paramātman from the other, because they form a type. Upanişadic identity is of an uncompromising type, but Joindu's identity is only in name. But when Joindu speaks of the identity between Atman and Paramātman he is fully justified, because according to Jainism Ātman is Paramātman. Paramātman was called Atman only because of Karmic limitations. It is by realizing this essential likeness of all the Ātmans that Jainism has faithfully stood as a champion of Ahimsā, Harmlessness, universal compassion in thought, word and deed. In this context the Jainas like the Sāmkhyas are Satkāryavādins accepting that the effect is potentially present in the material cause. Upanisadic Brahman has a monistic and pantheistic grandeur which we miss in the Jaina conception of Paramātman. Jainism looks at the world analytically, and Atman, moving along with the path of penance and meditation, evolves into Paramātman, where the race of the round-of-rebirths comes to a full stop; while Upanisads look at the world as a fundamental unity one with Brahman who is all-in-all,
Yogindu's Atman compared with that in Upanisads-Joindu's conception of Atman which is the same as that of Kundakunda and other Jaina authors, is like this: Ātman is a migrating entity of sentient stuff associated with Karmic energy since eternity. The world contains infinite Ātmans, the transmigratory destiny of each being determined by its Karmas. Ātman is immaterial as distinguished from Karman which is a form of matter. Though the soul assumes different bodies and acquires other physical accessories, it is essentially eternal and immortal. Its transmigratory journey comes to a stop, when Karmic matter is severed from it through penances, etc., and the Ātman is realized and becomes Paramātman. Even in liberation the soul, with all its potential traits fully developed on account of the absence of Karmic limitations, retains its individuality. So there will be infinite liberated souls. The very idea of the infinity of souls allows no question to be raised that the world might one day be empty when all the souls have attained liberation. All such souls, as dogma would require, which have become light by the destruction of Karmic weight, shoot forth to the top of the universe and stop there permanently in eternal bliss with no possibility of further upward motion as there is no medium of motion in the super-physical space. Though these details touch here and there the Upanişadic concepts of Ātman especially in the Group Three, there are fundamental differences. In Jainism both spirit and matter are equally real; the number of souls is infinite; and each soul retains its individuality even in Immortality. In the Upanişads there is nothing real
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
