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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
and terminate in the head. The sense-organs function normally as long as these veins are working in perfect harmony.1
According to Caraka, the cerebrum is the centre of the senseorgans and the vital life forces (prāņa). It is a truism that if a particular chord in the brain is cut, a particular psychic function is paralysed, but this does not mean that the brain cells are the psyche.
ATMAN AND INFINITE PRADESAS We have already seen that ātman has infinite number of pradeśas. Finite number of pradeśas cannot form the jīva. From the point of view of biological science, infinite number of cells form the individual life and the body (psycho-physical organism). Body is composed of infinite material particles, but life is formed of the protoplasmic units. From the noumenal point of view, it is said that the ātman is a spiritual substance. It is simple and pure. It is eternal and perfect. And the description of ātman as constituting of infinite pradeśas is only to be looked at from the practical point of view. It is only an attempt, an imperfect attempt to find out the measurement of the ātman, if it is possible to say so. A piece of cloth is woven with threads. Threads are the part of the cloth. But threads by themselves do not constitute the cloth, although threads are necessary for the cloth. Nor can we say that the aggregate of threads could be called cloth. It is the pattern that is important. Similarly, the ātman has infinite number of pradeśas. They constitute the pattern of the ātman.
Consciousness is the characteristic of the ātman. This characteristic of consciousness is psychic energy and it is a differential of the ātman. The non-living substances do not possess this characteristic. Therefore, ārman is considered to be a pure substance, independent of other substances. The jiva expresses the charactertstics of sat (existence) and kriyākāritva (activity). Due to its characteris
1
Tandula Veyāliya. “Imammi sariraye sathisirāsayam nābhippabhavānam uddhagāmiņīnam siram upagayānam jāü rasaharņiotti ccaī. Vujāsim nam niruvaghāenām cakkhūsoyaghānajihabalam bhavai." Caraka Sarhitā---
Prāņāh prāṇabhrtām yarta, tathā sarvendriyāṇi ca. Yaduttamāngamangānām ģirastadabhidhīyate.
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