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evolution or creation of the world-reals, e.g. intelligence, self-consciousness etc. is due to its having this kind of derivative consciousness. Prakṣti as the world-creator may be regarded as omniscient, although it is not possessed of the pure consciousness of a Puruşa. It is on this point that the Sāmkhya philosophers differ from the voluntarists. According to Schopenhauer, and the voluntarists of his school, there is no conscious Soul by the side of the primal unconscious Will. The unconscious Will evolves the world unconsciously and even when after millions of years after the world-creation there emerge the conscious beings, the Unconscious Will continues as unconscious. For, consciousness of man, according to the voluntarists is after all a negligible and superfluous excrescence; its emergence or evolution makes no difference in the unconscious nature of the world-evolving unconscious Will. The unconscious Will is eternally unconscious according to the voluntarists; there can never arise any question about its omniscience.
OR, PRAKŘTI Evolves INSTINCTIVELY : There certainly are rooms for doubt whether Praksti can be omniscient, even though the creation of the world may be attributed to it. Admittedly, the Prakrti is unconscious at the time of the involution up till the point when the creation begins. The Sāmkhya philosophers have nowhere expressly stated that when the Prakrti evolves the world, it does so consciously. There is no wisdom in birds nor even a clear idea in them about the object of their nests; they instinctively build their highly intricate nests and they cannot be said to be intelligent in the matter of making their nests. A cow holds and preserves milk in her which nourishes her calf, although she has no idea about the property of her milk nor its usefulness in connection with the nourishment of her calf; a cow is not called intelligent notwithstanding the fact of her preserving her milk for the calf. It may similarly be maintained that the Praksti evolves the world although it has no conscious idea about its cause or end. The Praksti need not be omniscient so far as the
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