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Soul
B. THE FACULTIES OF THE SOUL (Contd.)
In the foregoing section, we have given a bare description of the psychical faculties in the Jaina system. We propose to consider the true significance of these faculties and indicate their scope and real functions in the following lines, at the risk of a considerable amount of repetition.
ASPECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Kunda-Kundaçāryya points out the characteristics of a psychical being,
"The soul, as it is, exists; is conscious; has the power of understanding; is potent; is active; enjoys the fruits of actions; is limited by the body; is not corporeal; is mixed with Karma (Matter)" -27, Pañçāstikāya-Samayasāra. Nemi-çandra also says:
"The soul has the power of understanding; is formless; is the agent; is of the same size as its body; is the enjoyer of the fruits of its actions; moves in incarnations; is (substantially) perfect; has the tendency to upwards". -2, Dravya-Samgraha It would be seen that so far as psychology is concerned, the most important characteristics of a psychical being are consciousness and the power of understanding. KundaKuṇḍācāryya means this, when he says:
"The Soul and the other existents are the reals. The qualities of the soul are consciousness and the power of understanding." -16, Pañçāstikāya-Samayasāra Consciousness (Çetana), according to the Jaina's, stands for (1) the passive experience of agreeable or disagreeable phenomena; (2) the consciousness of purposive activity and (3) the more complicated psychical state, associated with, or rather leading to pure knowledge.
"As conscious, the souls experience in the three following ways. Some experience merely the fruits of Karma, some, their own activity; some again, knowledge".
-Ibid, 33
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