Sacred Philosophy

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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the remotest claim to existence. To put the same argument in different words, before we concede existence in favour of a thing some one will have to prove its existence; but he who will prove its existence will at least know it himself. Now extend the scope of the conclusion and we have it that everything that can ever be proved to exist must be known to at least one being-which is our first proposition.
The second proposition—that the soul is a substance whose function it is to know-has already been established in these pages and needs no further proof now. Now, since the soul is a substance and since the properties of a substance are the same wherever it may be found, it follows that all souls are alike in respect of their attributes and function. Hence, what one soul can know, all others can know also. Thus every soul has the capacity to know all that every other soul knew in the past, knows now, or will ever know in the future. In other words, every soul is omniscient by nature, that is, in potency. The cause or causes whicb stand in the way of the realisation of this potential omniscience will be enquired into later when we come to investigate the doctrine of karma. Meanwhile we shall study the nature of happiness which every living being is anxious to secure for himself.