Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 42

R. K. BHATTACHARYA
33
one substance. We say, “No ; spirit can never be matter. Matter is known by the senses, spirit only by spirit...... Spirit is that whose attribute or differentia is consciousness."
The difference between the soul and the non-soul, according to the Jains, is that the soul is endowed with the power to know, and the non-soul is the reverse of it. The dualism of the Jains was explained before the Religious Parliament in the following words : “The totality of the universe taken as a whole is eternal; but there are so many parts of that collection and so many entities in it, all of which have their different states which occur at different times and each part does not retain the same state at all times. There is change ; there is destruction of any particular form and a new form comes into existence; and therefore, if we look upon the universe from this standpoint, it is non-eternal."10 The idea that the universe originated from nothing, which the Buddhists hold so strongly, has no place in Jain philosophy.11 The Jains do not admit the existence of God; but their views are almost similar to the Sankhya and Vedānta systems of Hindu philsophy; they admit that there exists a Supreme Power or Energy to which they pray for being one or equal with Him. A Jain verse says : "I bow down to that spiritual power or energy which is the cause of leading us to thc path of salvation, which is supreme and omnicient. I bow down to that power ; because I wish to be one with him."12
Jain philosophy classifies the whole cosmos under two heads, viz. Jiva and Ajiva, of which the former stands for the sentient or conscicous, and the latter for insentient or unconscious. The Jiva travels from body to body, which themselves are Ajiva. When this unnecessary contact of Jiva with Ajīva is
9 10 11 12
Ibid., p. 25. Ibid., p. 43. Ibid., p. 47. Ibid., p. 55.