________________
Plurality of Souls :: 173
live upon each other, neither can exist in isolation from the other. For Rāmānuja creation is a real act of God, and difference is not a delusion. He is said to hold: “These texts do not mean to deny the reality of many objects, but only teach that in all of them there is the same Brahman, on which all are dependent for existence, just as all gold articles are dependent on gold.”1 Exposing the views of Rāmānuja M. Hiriyanna observes: “They (souls) are infinite in number, each being fundamentally distinct from others as shown by the differences in their experiences. Each has its own imperfection, such as ignorance and suffering. Each is atomic. They are different from God, and not only from one another, but the difference is not absolute as in case of matter, for they have features like sentience and bliss (though qualified) common with God.”2 For this group of idealists the plurality of souls or centres of consciousness is an accepted fact. The only point the Jaina would like to dispute is their origination from a unitary spiritual principle. We have already considered problem in all its three aspects, i.e., when the common origin this is held to be matter, spirit or some neutral stuff in Chapter 3. The individuality of consciousness presupposes the individuality of a structure behind it. This structure must be distinct from individual to individual. Hence the common origin must be conceived as giving rise to such distinct structures. It is not intelligible how a unitary indivisible structure can give birth to a plurality of structures. It is why all the pluralists hold a substantial distinction among such structures. The basic argument for the plurality of souls, mostly in all the pluralistic systems, starts with the functional distinctions, and from them we can infer the structural distinctions, behind them.
1. Chatterjee and Dutta: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, p. 472 2. M. Hiriyanna: Essentials of Indian Philosophy, p. 192
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
