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Chapter 4 The Soul and Consciousness
Introduction
The Jaina philosophy holds a very close relation between the soul and consciousness. From one point of view it thinks that the two are identical, While from another point of view it draws a distinction between the two. The soul is a substance as we have shown in the previous chapter; and consciousness is its differentiating characteristic. Where there is the substance of the soul, there is consciousness as its characteristic and vice versa. The soul and consciousness are always found together, it is only by way of abstraction that we can talk of consciousness distinctively of the soul. Nemicandra states that "consciousness is the very differentia of the jiva." There is no difference of opinion among the Jaina thinkers as regards the definitions of the soul. All such definitions refer to consciousness in one or the other form.
The Nyāya school of Indian philosophy opposes the above Jaina theory of soul and consciousness by holding consciousness as an adventitious quality of the soul. For the Naiyāyika consciousness does not characterize the soul; it is associated with the soul on account of the manas and the senses. Hence it is held that in the liberated state the soul loses the quality of consciousness. The Nyāya view of consciousness as an adventitious quality of the soul is found inconsistent in two ways. Firstly, if the soul and consciousness are absolutely distinct, they cannot be brought together to constitute a unity of the type which we require
1. Nemicandra: Dravyasamgraha, verse 3
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