Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

Author(s): S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 11

discussion of the Jaina dialectic and aims to establish the validity of partial comprehensions. A new meaning is given to the pramāṇa-knowledge by introducing the conception of system. Then follow the five chapters dealing with the substance of the soul and its various functions. In the third chapter the dualism of soul and matter is sought to be established. The Jaina dualism of the soul (jiva) and the non-soul (ajiva) is not based on absolute opposition. Hence the theory of relation between them is shown to transcend both interactionism and parallelism. The fourth chapter deals with the Jaina theory of knowledge. Consciousness, the identity of which has so far been a riddle, has been found to be no distinct attribute of the soul. In accordance with the Jaina theory of substance the soul is shown to possess a multiplicity of attributes. In respect of some of their attributes both the soul and the non-soul agree with each other. The special attributes of the soul like conation (darśana), knowledge (jñāna), bliss (sukha), etc., distinguish it from the non-soul; and the general implication of such attributes is termed as consciousness. Thus not only conation (darśana) and knowledge (jñāna) are found to be conscious, but many other attributes of the soul are also conscious. The old controversies regarding conation and knowledge, the sensuous (mati) and perceptual (śruta) types of knowledge, the non-difference of clairvoyance (avadhi) and telepathy (manaḥparyaya) and the non-distinction of bliss (sukha) and knowledge (jñāna) have received varied interpretations at the hands of the Jaina writers themselves. They have failed to pacify our curiosity in one or the other way. These problems are so represented in the present treatise as to yield a fresh solution in the light of the Jaina theory of attributes. The fifth chapter deals with extension as an implicate of the soul's existence. It leads to the conclusion that the soul as a substance has an extended structure. Bliss, the topic of the next chapter, has been variously conceived by the Jaina writers. It has been sought
1. Devasena: Äläpapaddhati, p. 33