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THE PRACTICAL DHARMA
This is precisely what is implied in the theory of transmigration, which, undoubtedly, was well known to and accepted by every rational religion in the past. It is, however, in Jainism alone that we find it placed on a scientific foundation, and though the scriptures of other creeds contain allusions to it, these allusions are nearly always couched in mystic or unintelligible language and are never explained on lines of rational or scientific thought. This is one of the facts which explain the reason why the followers of certain religions, including Christianity, do not now accept the doctrine of re-birth, and range themselves against the creeds which preach it.
That the theory of transmigration is a truth of philosophy will be readily acknowledged by any one who will study the nature of the soul and of the causes upon which depends its ensoulment in a body of matter. As regards the former, that is, the nature of the soul, it is sufficient to state that the qualities of feeling, willing and knowing, which are the special attributes of consciousness, are not to be found in matter, and must, for that reason, be the property of a substance which differs in toto from it. The simplicity of the soul is proved by the fact that no one ever feels himself as many, which shows that the subject of knowledge, feeling, perception and memory is not a reality composed of many atoms or parts, but a simple individuality. Soul, then, is a reality which is not indebted to any other substance for its existence, and as such must be deemed to be eternal and uncreate. This amounts to saying that the line of existence of every soul merges in infinity both in the past and the future, so that each and every living being has a history of his own, however much he might be ignorant of the events of his earlier lives in his present incarnation.
In respect of the causes of the ensoulment of a jāva in the body of matter, it is to be observed that in its natural purity the soul is the enjoyer of perfect wisdom, unlimited perception, infinite power and unbounded happiness, which, in the absence of a restraining force or body of some kind, must be deemed to be manifested in the fullest degree in its nature. The idea of such a perfect being descending to inhabit a body of flesh and thereby crippling its natural unlimited perfection, in a number of ways, is too absurd to be entertained for a moment. It
