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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
remain fit and erect for a long time without the supporting force nor for the supporting force to continue to hold up the body so long, --when the Manas is outside the body. The Naiyāyika's accordingly conclude that Manas operates always within one's body and never steps out of it during his life. Indeed life according to the Nyāya school means the contact of an embodied and feeling soul with Manas, as Vātsāyana says,--
'सदेहस्यात्मनो मनसा संयोगो विपच्यमानकर्माशयसहितो जीवनमिष्यते।'
MANAS, THE MATI-SĀDHANA
Manas is a sense, the internal sense, according to the Naiyāyika's. It is an instrument for the Atmā with the help of which the latter comes to have knowledge. It is accordingly called the Mati-sādhana, the means of knowledge. It is Manas also that generates activities (Prayatna) in the soul. Manas is subordinated to the soul and like matter and the sense-organs is different from it. Firstly, consciousness and its modes e.g. desire, aversion, volitional activity, etc. belong to the soul and not to the Manas. Secondly, the soul is independent and self-determined; it of its own accord, proceeds to know or act on objects; while Manas is Paratantra, in as much as it is meant for the soul and all its dealings with outside objects as well as all its operations have their “push, so to say, from the soul. Thirdly, the soul as the real doer of acts is to experience their fruits; the Manas cannot be said to enjoy them. MANAS IS NOT MATERIAL ACCORDING TO NYĀYA
Manas is different from the Ātmā. It is unconscious whereas the soul is conscious. But though unconscious, Manas is not matter. It is atomic no doubt, according to the Naiyayika's but this does not mean that Manas is a material atom. It means only that it is not an all-pervasive substance like the soul but comes in contact with the peripheral senseórgans only successively, though with extreme swiftness. Like an atom, Manas is extremely subtle and has no parts or dimensions; still it is a substance, essentially different
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