Book Title: Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics
Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

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Page 281
________________ 266 Reals in the faina Metaphysics the sense-organ, on the other. The contact of Manas with the soul, they urge, militates against the Naiyāyika doctrine of the atomic character of the Manas. The soul is all-pervasive according to the Naiyāyika's; if the Manas is to come in contact with it, it also becomes pervasive. You cannot say that in generating knowledge, Manas comes in contact with a part only of the soul; for in that case, the soul must be held to have parts, which is against the Nyāya theory. The contact of the Manas with a sense-organ also becomes full of difficulties, if Manas be atomic; for in that case, the sense-organ also becomes atomic. It is contended by the Nyāya school that Manas makes perceptions successive and because of its extreme swiftness, makes really successive perceptions appear as simultaneous. The Jaina's urge that if Manas is unconscious (as held by the Naiyāyika's), its movements become inexplicable. How is the unconscious Manas to determine to which parts of the body, it is to attend from moment to moment ? Every moment the periphery of the body is being affected from the outside in various ways. If Manas is unconscious, how is it to move to point A in the moment and not to the points B, C or D and in the next moment to point X and not to the points Y, Z or P? The Jaina's next attack the Nyāya position that Manas is attached to the soul from the beginningless time. They point out that if the conjunction of the soul with the Manas be so essential it would be impossible for them to be separated at any time, so that Moksa or emancipation becomes impossible. No doubt, the Jaina's admit that the soul is attached to Karma-matter from the beginningless time and that yet the emancipation of the soul from Karmacontact in the Mokșa stage is possible. But there is a difference between Karma-matter and Manas, attaching to the soul. In the case of the former, Karma, though joined with the soul, is always dropping down and being replaced by fresh Karma,---so that there is the possibility of Karma being absolutely removed without being succeeded by fresh Karma. Manas, on the contrary, is an eternal and unalterable substance, according to the Naiyāyika's, so that Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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