Path of Arhat

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Smarak Parshwanath Shodhpitha Varanasi

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The Path of Arhat: A Religious Democracy
the pleasures and pains of the world going around him. What is it which remembers the pleasant and unpleasant experiences undergone during sleep? It is the self, the soul, the 'I' consciousness. This 'I' consciousness remains steady throughout life. 'I', the knower, is pure ego as distinguished from empirical ego, being clouded by Karmic forces, begins to think that worldly actions are done by 'me'. According to William James, the American Psychologist, the empirical self consists of "entire collection of consciousness, the psychic faculties and dispositions taken concretely." Distinguishing pure self from the empirical one, he says, "It is the thinker which thinks. This is permanent, what the philosophers call soul or the transcendental ego." Thus, when it is said that the soul is pure consciousness, what is revealed is the untainted principal characteristic of soul which, in Jaina terminology, is known as 'Niścaya Naya'. However, when it is said that the soul is enjoying its Karmas, and therefore, subjected to mundane existence, what is revealed is its empirical character known as 'Vyavahara Naya' in Jaina terminology. 'Naya' means viewpoint, 'Niścaya' means ideological and "Vyavahara' means practice. In Jainism the qualities of the self, are expressed in terms of 'Niścaya'.
Acarya Kunda-kunda, a leading Jaina saint and scholar, has described the qualities of soul in his famous work 'Samayasara' - "The soul is the Lord (Prabhu ), the 'doer' (Kartta ), the Enjoyer (Bhokta) and limited to 'a body' ( Dehamātra ) still incorporeal, and ordinarily with Karma. As the potter considers "himself the maker and enjoyer of the clay-pot, so from the practical point of view (Vyavahara-naya) the mundane soul is said to be the doer of things and enjoyer of sense-objects."
Umasvati, another great saint-scholar, in his well known work 'Tattvartha-sutra' says that, "consciousness manifests fully in perfect comprehension and apprehension (Jñana and
1. Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1.