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Ontology of Atman, the Self
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nature which Mahavira's teaching took for granted and upon which it played, was already centuries (perhaps even millenium) old (Prof. Zimmer is of the view that the Śramapa School, to which Mahavira belonged, existed in India much prior to the advent of Aryans ). It was a systematization that had long done away with the hosts of powerful gods and the wizard-magic of the still earlier priestly tradition-which itself had been as far above the really primitive level of human culture as are the arts of agriculture, herding and dairying above those of hunting and fishing, roof and berry gathering. The world was already old, very wise, and very learned, when the speculations of the Greeks produced the texts that are studied in our universities as the first chapter of philosophy."
Speaking of the all-comprehensive universality of the idea of a cosmic man in Jainism, Prof. Zimmer says: "In Jainism, the whole Universe, including its infra-human stratifications, is comprised in the Divine anthropomorphic organism-beasts and plants, devoid of man's higher faculties of love, wisdom and spirituality, and also inorganic matter and the mute elements. This accords with the universal scope of India, doctrines of perfection, transformation and redemption. Not only human beings but all existences are included. Though steeped in darkness, the beasts and even atoms are looking for salvation, for they are the members of all-comprehending brotherhood of life-monads. Their destiny is to ascend, at last, beyond the bondages of Karmas."2
Quality of Self
According to the Jaina seers the essential quality of Jiva (Soul) is pure consciousness-consciousness which does not die even in deep sleep in which the soul does not participate in any of the worldly affairs and remains unaffected by all
1. Campbell, J. Philosophies of India, Meridian Books, p. 278.
2. Ibid, pp. 245-246.
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