Some Problems in Jaina Psychology

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Karnatak University Dharwar

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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
ceases to blow, men die. In the Navaho legend there is a description of the life force according to which we see the trace of the wind in the skin at the tips of fingers. Prāņas refer to psycho-physical factors of the organism. The jiva assumes the bodily powers when it takes new forms in each new birth. Whatever thing manifests in the four prāṇas lives and is jīva.20 The four prāņas are manifest in ten forms. The indriya expresses itself in five senses. Bala may refer to the mind, the body and speech. Ayu and ana are one each. These prānas in all their details need not be present in all organisms, because there are organisms with less than five sense organs. But there must be the four main characteristics. The most perfectly developed souls have all the ten prāṇas and the lowest have only four. This has a great biological and psychological significance. Comparative psychology points out that in the psycho-physical development of the various animal species at the lower level, the chemical sense which is affected by chemical reaction is the only sense function; and it later becomes the separate sense of taste and smell. Experimental investigations carried by Riley and Forel point out that the chemical sense is used by insects like moths even for mating. Forel has given a topo-chemical theory for explaining the behaviour of bees. As we go higher in the scale of life, the chemical sense plays little part. In birds, sight and smell are well developed. In mammals, we find a higher degree of qualitative discrimination of smell. As we go higher still, we get the variability of adaptation which may be called intelligence.
In the Brahmanas and the oldest Upaniṣads there is a description of the psyche as consisting of five prāņas. They are regarded as factors of the physico-psychological life. Occasionally, more than five prāņas are mentioned. But still the idea of a permanent self had not shaped itself. In the third adhyaya of the Brhadaranyakopaniṣad Yājñyavalkya was asked to explain what happens to a person after the body has been dissolved, and the parts of the psyche has been remitted to the fire and wind. He avoids the discussion and suggests that karma remains after death.21 This was a step forward towards the formation of the permanent self. Brhadaranyakopaniṣad also contains a discussion about the constituent parts of the soul. Eight instead of five have been suggested. Vijnana and retaḥ are mentioned. This vijnānamayapuruşa comes nearer to the conception of the soul, although personal immortality is not emphasized. In Jainism also, the idea of a permanent soul possessing prāņas must have developed on the same lines.
From the phenomenal point of view, the soul is the Lord (prabhu), the doer (kartā), enjoyer (bhoktā), limited to his body (dehamātra), still
20 Pañcāstikāyasāra, 30.
21 Ranade (R. D.): A Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy, p. 181 (1926).