Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

Page 61

28 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS infinite powers existing. But knowledge means the power of knowing something, and is not material, therefore that idea of the impossibility of the existence of two infinite things is really speaking a false idea because the reasoning itself is fallacious. It is a reasoning in which there is no middle term because the word 'infinite' would be used in the major and minor premises in two different senses. We have, therefore, to discuss the physical condition, mental, moral and spiritual conditions of the soul, and the laws which are to be derived for the purpose of advancing the life of the soul must be based on the facts which are experienced on all the planes, and must also be based on the true ideas of the relation of the human being with other beings. Although in a theoretical sense we may divide the planes of life into different divisions, the lowest kind being the monad, along all the other planes, the vegetable, animal, etc. till we come to the highest plane, that of human life, which we also divide into different planes, still we know that our own life is related to all other life, and certainly we must observe the facts with regard to all this other life. Physical life we can know by actual observation, in other forms of life or in the human body itself. How is it maintained ? Let us olvserve in the case of a tree. It lives by gathering to itself other particles of matter which it assimilates. At the same time, while it assimilates all these it destroys the life of these particles. If these particles lived their own life always independently of the life of the tree, there could be no growth. Suppose in the human body so many living beings, each living its own life, the human being cannot live. The physical elements must be assimilated. So in the physical life there is no possibility of existence without destruction of other life, at the same time we know that to a certain extent there is always gathering of more and more particles every moment, but finally the organism collects less and less and at last it disintegrates and the life force departs from it and we call this death. This is the ordinary idea of the physical life, and most of us who have not studied occult sciences think that there is not life beyond this, and that all