Book Title: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
Author(s): S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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Page 185
________________ Jaina Eschatology :: 181 inhere in the soul and condition the creation of a new body in the next birth. Adrsta is responsible for the conjunction of soul with sense organs, mind and sense objects, and this conjunction is responsible for the experience of pleasure and pain.”! Though for the Naiyāyika the soul is immutable and ubiquitous, yet on account of some non-eternal qualities it becomes subject to the effect of its own actions. This effect stored up in the soul is called the adrsta, and, where there is suitable occasion, it becomes a link between the soul and its empirical experiences. Like the adrsta of the Nyāya-Vaiseșika the Mimāṁsaka also postulates a principle for generating a potency for various experiences in the soul and designates it as the apūrva. Karma, for him, means the enjoinment of religious duties which give rise to the apūrva. "It is held that the ritual performed here generates in the soul of the performer an unperceived potency (i.e. power for generating the fruit of the action) called apūrva, which remains in the soul and bears fruit when circumstances are favourable.”? Like rituals all other actions must influence the soul by way of generating a capacity which goes to determine its future conditions. On its behavioural side such a karma may mean only the process of action as abstracted from the agencies whose action is meant; but on its structural side it must mean something positive like a distinct capacity generated in the substance behind actions. (ii) The Sāmkhya Conception The Sāṁkhya holds ignorance as the sole cause of the soul's bondage. Ignorance is effective by way of sāṁskāras or impressions which are retained by the self for determining future behaviour. Though he assigns such limitation to buddhi or intellect only thereby safeguarding the puruṣa's immutability, yet his faith in the principle of bondage is equally firm. Expounding the Sāṁkhyan view of the self M. 1. Kanāda: Vaisesika-sútra, 5.2.25 2. Chatterjee and Datta: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, p. 383 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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