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158 :: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
Bliss as an Attribute in the Structure of the Soul (Rājamalla's View)
The Jaina thinkers seem to be divided into two groups as regards the indentity of the affective faculty of the soul. Rājamalla says, “In the soul there is a self-established and immortal attribute of bliss. Being disturbed by the destructive type of karmas it has become invisible.... It is true that the jīva has the attribute of bliss like the attributes of cognition, etc. It becomes disturbed in the form of pain on account of the operation of eight kinds of karmas.” He also denies the thesis that bliss is an attribute of other attributes like knowledge, because the Tattvārtha-sūtra says that the attributes inhere in the substances, but in themselves they do not have any other attribute.” “Undisturbed bliss is the power of the jīva inhering in its substance. Its disturbance is due to the destructive type of karmas."3 “Pain as a whole taking place in a moment is also thought to be a disturbed manifestation of the attribute of bliss. "4 Herein the writer seems to be very explicit in affirming bliss as a distinct attribute of the soul. Pain and pleasure arise on account of the soul's association with the karmas. This attribute of bliss when left to itself, produces what C.R. Jain designates as spititual pleasure. Now we are able to appreciate the use of the term “sukha' or bliss in the sense of feeling by the Jaina writers. Devasena in his Ālāpa-paddhati also enumerates bliss as a special attribute of the jiva.5 This very attribute takes the form of pleasure or pain, when disturbed by the karmic agencies. Aurobindo remarks: "Pleasure can become pain or pain pleasure, because in their secret reality they are the same thing differently reproduced in the sensation and emotion."6 Thus the faculty of bliss is the same as the
1. Rājamalla: Pañcâdhyāyi, II, verses 313 and 1107 2. Ibid., verses, 1105 and 1106 3. Ibid., verse 327 4. M.C. Jain: Tattvārtha Cintāmaņi, I, p. 412 5. Devasena: Aläpapaddhati, p. 33 6. Aurobindo: The Divine Life, p. 339
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