________________
204
SAMAYASĀRA
knower, a mere spectator of the various changes physical and psychical which both are due to prakyti according to the Sānkhya view. Though the Puruşa is not responsible for any activity, he is still considered to be enjoying the fruits of the action of the prakyti. Thus the Purușa is also the bhokta. This Sānkhya description of the Self, that he is the knower, permanent, actionless, and enjoyer is incompatible with the Jaina conception of the Self. Obviously about the time of Bhagavān Kunda Kunda, some Jaina thinkers must have had leanings towards the Sānkhya view. According to these Sramaņābhāsas, or the Jaina heretics, the karmic material played the part of the Sāņkhyan praksti. Every change and every activity was credited to the operation of karmic material, the Self remaining an active spectator. This attitude is condemned by our author by showing the utter untenability of the Sānkhya doctrine. If every change and every activity is aitributed to prakyti and if the Self is merely an unchanging permanent spectator absolutely uninfluenced by the action of karmas, he must remain for ever a mokşa-jiva, a liberated Self. It would mean the absence of samsāra. This conclusion is contradicted by actual experience, because in actual experience we have an empirical ego or samsära jiva as a fact of reality which cannot be dismissed as unreal. This empirical state of existence in which saṁsāra jīva lives as a matter of fact certainly demands an explanation. This explanation which is not supplied by the Sankhya vicw is offered by the Jaina doctrine which is put forth by our author as a corrective to the Sankhya view. The karmic material is no doubt the main operative principle responsible for the physical and psychic changes produced in the being of a person. When the karmic material is operative, the Self does not remain an inactive spectator according to Jaina metaphysics. If the Self were so inactive, he would not be different from the Sānkhya Purușa. But the successful operation of the karmic material and the consequent psycho-physical changes are due to the attitude of the Self which has a suitable responsive reaction. Without this responsive reaction on the part of the Self, the karmic material would be impotent and will not be able to produce any change either in the body or
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
