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SAMAYASARA
knower, a mere spectator of the various changes physical and psychical which both are due to praksti according to the Sankhya 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 Puruşa is also the bhokta. This Sankhya 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 Taina thinkers must have had leanings towards the Sānkhya view. According to these Śramaņābhāsas, 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 anthor by showing the utter untenability of the Sänkhya doctrine. If every change and every activity is attributed 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 samsāra jiva as a fact of reality which cannot be dismissed as unreal. This empirical state of existence in which samsāra jiva lives as a matter of fact certainly demands an explanation. This explanation which is not supplied by the Sānkhya view 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 Sāňkhya Puruşa. 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
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