Some Jain Concepts and Conduct

Author(s): Sushma Singhvi
Publisher: B J Institute

Page 62

The Concept of Ātman
According to the Daśavaikālika sūtra one who does not know the Ātman and Anātman, Jiva and Ajiva, self and nonself can not know the path of saṁyama.' Self is the subject, as well as an object, of all meditation. The nature of the self is, therefore, the most fundamental of all discussions. Chāndogyopanişad says that self-realization is the key to removal of all the miseries.
• The brhadāraṇyakopanisad mentions that it is the self which we should perceive, hear, of which we should meditate.3
According to Cārvāka self is body, characterized by consciousness. On the dissolution of body, the self is annihilated.* cāravākas do not accept the existence of soul as a different entity from the body. This is duty refuted by the Jain statement that the Jiva lives by prāņas. If body and soul are accepted as one then it can not be assumed that they can be separated from each other and action would be anticipated wheresoever body is existing whether lifeless or with life.
The Nyāya system believes that the knowledge is attributed to the soul as an associated quality. In the initial stage of inception, dravya is supposed to be without any attribute. According to this system the existence of a permanent jīvātman can be proved through inference and authority. The Nyāya Vaiseșika systems hold that Ātman is basically non-conscious and consiqusness becomes manifest in it only by its association with mind, sense-organs and objects of contact. Therefore, the state of liberation is a stage of complete non-consciousness.