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Samayasāra
Chapter - 10 In these verses, the author reiterates the basic non-absolutist doctrine and uses it to refute the absolutist's views. In the preceding verse, he had refuted the absolute permanence-immutability of the conscious principle as propounded by Sāmkhya and others. Here he refutes the absolute impermanence and substancelessness held by the Buddhists.
We have already seen that the Jain position is quite distinct from that of the absolutist's and does not endorse either eternalism or nihilism. The Jain conception of permanence is not absolute staticity but persistent flow, i.e., the substance persists through modes. It 'is' as well as 'becomes'. Just as dead staticity is incompatible with change, absolute being is inconsistent with becoming. But becoming, according to Jains, is not a derivative of being but its necessary concomitant and hence being and becoming are not mutually incompatible. The question “Why should a thing become and change?" is as absurd as the question “Why should a thing exist?” The thinker who presume Being as absolutely static and conceive Becoming as a derivative of being are landed in selfcontradiction. They eventually reject either being or becoming or both as illusory.
With these doctrines, the Jains hold the soul to be an eternal entity persisting through different births and bodies. They believe in good and bad actions and also their fruits. But the Buddhists do not believe in a spiritual substance persisting through various births, according to them the soul that acts is absolutely different from the one that enjoys the fruits of the actions. Thus, concluded the author, all absolutist philosophies carry perverted beliefs and are therefore non-believers.
Inspite of Continuous Modification/Change, the Soul never loses its Soulhood, that is, never becomes another Substance
जह सिप्पिओ दु कम्मं कुव्वदि ण य सो दु तम्पओ होदि।
तह जीवो वि य कम्मं कुव्वदि ण य तम्मओ होदि॥४२॥ jaha sippio du kammam kuvvadi na ya so du tammao hodi. taha jīvo vi ya kammam kuvvadi na ya tammao hodi..42
जह सिप्पिउ करणेहिं कुव्वदि ण य सो दु तम्मओ होदि। तह जीवो करणेहिं कुव्वदि ण य तम्मओ होदि॥४३॥
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