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Structure of the Soul and Extension :: 149
three answers have been given to the question. The Nyāya and the Sārkya hold the soul to be of infinite magnitude. For Rāmānuja and the Bhātta Mimāṁsaka it is infinitely small. The Jaina view stands between the aforesaid two extremes. Nemicandra says: “The Jiva is coeval with the body it inhabits.”l As the physical body is changeable, so the size of the soul must be held to be variable. Prabhācandra observes: “The soul is felt as I in the forms, I am happy, I am sad and I know a ghata (pot)' in the organism itself, not in the organisms of others, or in the intermediate space.”2 Yośovijaya also states: “The soul is coeval with the body, because its qualities are seen as pervading the body.”2 Individual consciousness is seen bound with the organism and is due to the presence of the soul in it. So the soul must be held equally extensive with the body. The mundane existence of the soul is determined by its association with the karma-śarīra which is coeval with the soul. The soul, the karma-śarīra and the physical body must all be held of the same magnitude. The extension of the soul beyond the physical organism seems to be superfluous, for no consciousness whatsoever is experienced outside the organism. According to Rāmānuja "the all pervasive nature of the soul which the Upanişads describe cannot, therefore, be taken, in the literal sense. The real sense of the pervasiveness of the soul is that the soul is so subtle (sūkşma) that it can penetrate every unconscious material substance."4 Akalarka has also observed: The soul is coeval with the body, it is not only knowledge. From the view point of knowledge it is all pervasive, it is not all pervasive absolutely."5 If the soul is held to be extending outside the body, then consciousness must be felt there; but such a conclusion is not confirmed by our experience. If it is held
1. Nemicandra: Drayasangraha, verse p. 2 2. Prabhācandra: Prameya-kamala-mārtanda, p. 171 3. Yośovijaya: Nyāyāloka, p. 49 4. Chatterjee and Datta: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, p. 484. 5. Akalanka: Svarūpasambodhana, verse 5.
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