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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
a Snake may expand itself and assume a bigger form by leaving aside the quiscent and smaller form and vice-versa. If you view the soul through its varied states and modifications, it must be admitted that the soul undergoes change and is non-eternal in that respect. But substantially it is immutable and eternal. As regards the objection that the soul is cut when the Body is cut, the Jaina theory is that when a portion of the Body is cut off, a portion of the soul does extend to the sundered part of the Body. Tremors are often found in such sundered parts of the Body; these are inexplicable unless you admit the existence of a part of the soul in these separated parts of the Body. Of course, no new soul comes into these parts; what persists there is nothing but a part of the soul which dwells within the Body and is of the same extent with it. The soul continues to be one, although the Body is divided into two. It is possible for one and the same soul to exist in the two separated parts of the Body, just as one and the same soul permeates the varied parts of one series of knowledge. The soul is not really cut in two; it simply extends itself to the sundered part of the Body. It is for this reason that the whole soul is once more found in the living portion of the maimed Body. The philosophers of the Jaina school establish in this way that there can be no valid objection to their doctrine that the Soul is of the same extent as the Body.
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THE POSITIVE ARGUMENT OF THE JAINA'S THAT IS OF THE SAME EXTENT AS BODY
After setting aside the Nyaya objections in the above manner, the Jaina's advance the following positive argument: "The soul is not all-pervasive because it is conscious; whatever is all-pervasive is not conscious; as for instance, the Sky; the Soul is conscious; hence it is not all-pervasive". "If the Soul is not all-pervasive, it must be of the same extent as the Body; because the existence of the soul is perceived within the Body only".
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THE SOUL
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