Some Problems in Jaina Psychology

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

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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
In Gommaṭasāra: Jivakāṇḍa, we get a detailed classification of samsāri jīvas. This classification is shown in Table I.
Comparative psychology points out that there have been various stages in the development of animal life. The first simple animals, the protozoa, are possessed of one sense. In fact, till we reach the insect species we find that the chemical sense predominates. Positive, negative and food reactions are mainly due to the chemical sense. As we go up the animal scale, we find sensory discrimination in qualitative distinctions. Even the other senses get discriminated and developed as we proceed in the development of animal life. Similarly, the distinction between the jīvas, as paryāpta and aparyāpta, has great psychological significance. Gommaṭasāra thus illustrates the paryāpta, developed, "as the things like the room, jars, and clothes are full or empty, so the jīvas should be understood to be complete or incomplete."37 Jīva becomes paryāpta with the absorption of karmic matter for building up its body, sense, respiration and manas. One-sensed organisms become complete with the possession of food, drink, body, sense, and respiration. Similarly, the possession of these attributes makes the first four-sensed organisms paryāpta or complete. For fivesensed organisms all the six are necessary. In the absence of these the jīvas are incomplete. Comparative psychology has shown that sensory discrimination has been a gradual process. Miss Washburn points out that ability to distinguish between the different sensory experiences depends on several factors, like the nature of the sense organs and the ability to make varied reaction movements.38 On the basis of these investigations, three different classes of senses, like the chemical sense, hearing and sight, have been mentioned. The chemical sense is manifested in the combined senses of taste and touch. As sensory discrimination becomes more complex, the mental life of the animal becomes more developed and pronounced.
These characteristics of the soul are mentioned from the practical point of view. Defilement of the soul takes place when the karma pours into the soul. This is called āśrava. The soul then begins to experience mundane and emotional experiences like the passions. The karma which comes into contact is retained. The soul is eternally infected with matter. Every moment it is getting new matter. In the normal course of things, it has no end. But the deliverance of the soul from the wheel of samsara is possible by voluntary means. By the process of samvara the soul can stop the influx of karma; by nirjarā it can eliminate the karma already glued to the soul. Then all obstacles are removed and the soul becomes pure and perfect, free from the wheel of saṁsāra. Being free, with its upward motion the jīva attains the liberation or mokṣa.
37 Gommaṭasāra, p. 118.
38 Washburn (Miss): The Animal Mind, Ch. V, (1936).