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Plurality of Souls :: 169
The Naiyāyika and the Sānkhya on the Pluratity of Souls
The Nyāya and the Sāṁkhya schools of Indian philosophy maintain the plurality of selves along with their ubiquitous nature. They base their conclusion on the distinctness of experience of two individuals. This will mean that the souls penetrate each other without offering even the least resistance and maintain their individuality. The distinctness of experience in all its three aspects i.e. the conative, the cognitive and the affective is clearly felt. In no way the experiences of two persons are seen to be the same. Negatively if there were only one soul, it would have been difficult, to account for experiences of different individuals. The basic unity of the one soul could not have taken a form of plurality at any stage of its existence. The substance of the individual souls being distinct, the fact of the plurality of souls is a natural conclusion both on its structural and functional sides. Expounding the views of the Nyāya-Vaiseșika M. Hiniyanna observes: “The selves are many; and, although they are all pervading, their capacity to know, feel and will is originally manifested through the physical organism with which each of them is associated for the time being. The very disparity in the circumstances characterizing the lives of beings is regarded as an index to the fundamental distinction of their selves. This difference, being intrinsic, continues in the state of release also; and, though all other differences between any two selves disappear when both have been released, there will be the višesas then, as in case of atoms, to distinguish them from each other."1 The Jaina is in perfect agreement with the Nyāya view and strengthens his position by holding that the unity of a substance can never be disintegrated by any means. The soul is one individual both in its mundane and liberated states. The Sāṁkhyan plurality of purusas is also based on the individuality of experience. The death, birth, thinking and activity of different individuals are
1. M. Hiriyanna: The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, p. 191
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