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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
6. The Jaina view of the soul is that the soul ls formless. But it appears to have form due to karmic encrustations and the subtle body. But the Samkhya-Yoga thinks that the soul is formless and the forms of the individual soul are due to the subtle and the gross bodies which are products of prakṛti. The illusion of a form arises due to the fact that the impressions received through the sense-organs are reflected in the soul and the soul therefore reflects it back. Just as space has no form, yet we, through our reflection, imagine the form of space. Similarly, the soul expresses the relection that give rise to forms.1
7. According to Jainism, the soul is the source of infinite energy, and the energy of knowledge, of will and of power, but in the Samkhya-Yoga we find these forces are attributed not to consciousness which is the essence of the soul, but to the subtle body which is the form of buddhi and buddhi is the product of prakṛti.2
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8. According to Jainism all the jīvas have the same capacity and the same energy, but personality distinctions are due to the differences in the puruşartha and other causes. In the Samkhya-Yoga also the difference in the personality development are traced to the Sūkṣma sarira which is the form of buddhi and the buddhi is the propuct of prakṛti. In its real nature each soul is equal.
COMPARISON OF JAINA VIEW WITH NYAYA-VAISEṢIKA VIEW
The Jainas and the Samkhya-Yoga tradition have presented a theory of the soul in which we find the nature of the soul as independent and consciousness. Consciousness is the essence of the soul. Similarly Nyaya-Vaiśeşika theory has given an independent view of the soul. Nyaya-Vaiseṣika, like the Samkhya-Yoga, accept the reality of the soul and its independence from the body. Souls are infinite in number and they are beginningless. They are eternal. They are spiritual substances. However, Nyaya-Vaiseşika does not accepts the Jaina characteristic of the soul as pervading the body, but it maintains that soul is all-pervasive like the views of the Samkhya.1 The Nyaya-Vaiseşika does not accept the characteristic of the expansion and contraction according to the needs of the body that the
1 Samkhyakārikā 62.
2 Samkhyakārikā 40.
3 Vaiseṣika Darśana 3, 2, 20; 3, 2, 21.
4 Vaisesika Darśana 7, 1, 22-Vibhavanmahānākāśastathā cātmā.
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