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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
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philosophers of the Vedic tradition gave their own interpretations of the nature of Mokșa when the concepts were introduced in the Vedic tradition. The Buddha never claimed to be an omniscient being. He did not impose his views on his disciples. He said to his disciples that they should accept whatever stands the test of reason and should not accept any view because the Tathāgata has said. This is one of the reasons why there developed differences of opinion regarding the nature of Nirvāņa in the Buddhist philosophy. Moreover, the Buddha was silent over the nature of metaphysical problems like Nirvāṇa and the self. But this is not so with the development of Jaina thought. The Tirthařkara Mahāvīra was an omniscient, a Kevalin. And the word; of the Kevalin had absolute authority. Therefore, there did not appear to have differences regarding the inetaphysical problems like the nature of the Mokşu.
The Jaina conception of the universal and the particular, the identity and difference and the permanent substances and its changing modes as equally reil has influenced the Jaina conception of Mokşa. The principle of permanence, however, is not like the eternal principle of Puruşa and Prak rti in the Sārkhya philosophy. The Jaina conception of the Atman is a synthesis of the principles of permanence and modes. From the noumenal point of view, the soul is perinanent as a substance. From the phenomenal point of view, there are modes. Considered from the point of view of modes, the self is changing.
The Jainas do not consider the Atman as all-pervading like the Nyāya-Vaiseșika or atomic in nature like Rāmānuja's standpoint. They say, that Atman is madhyama pariņāmī, pervading the body that it occupies. It has the characteristics of both expansion and contraction in order to pervade the entire body, whether small or big. This is the empirical description of the soul from the empirical point of view. From the noumenal point of view the soul is eternal as a substance. It is non-eternal from the point of view of modifications. The Jainas have accepted the principle of the co-reality of substance and its modifications. For this reason, the Jainas contend that at the time of attainment of Mokşa the pervasion of the soul becomes less
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