Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

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

Page 99

66 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS higher forms of life, there are two, three, four, and (as in animals, birds, fish and men) five senses. Through the senses a limited form of knowledge is unfolded. The second source is study and reading. The third is Avadhi, or the psychic faculty, through which finer and more subtle things are known. The fourth is mind-knowing, by which the mental processes of others are known and understood.' The fifth is Absolute Knowledge, in which all limitations of body and brain are removed. This state is not a loss, but rather the acme, of consciousness.
All these stages come to the ego not of themselves but through persistent effort and exercise of free will, or rather by making the will freer and freer. Personality is the mere physical but subtle gathering of accretions through which the individuality becomes unfolded. Personality is, therefore, changing every moment; the individuality is for every moment the particular stage of unfoldment of the ego itself, and is consequently the bearer of the sins and sorrows, pleasures and enjoyments, of mundane life. In absolute perfection this bearing nature is thrown off like a husk, and the ego dwells in divine and eternal bliss. Consciousness, Body and Mind
Consciousness is found in all these. The lowest is that found in the beings that have only the organ of touch. The reason why these organs of sense are found inherent is the law of ethical causation.
Not that consciousness becomes human. Put a dollar into the pocket of a rich man or a poor man. It is the same dollar although it may be spent for an entirely different purpose. So a soul in a plant body, an animal body, or a human body may be the same soul.
1. This is not to be confounded with telepathy or direct thought-transference,
in which a conscious relation has to be established between the agent and the recipient, since in genuine mind-knowing the developed man knows the mental activities of others without their trying 10communicate them to him.