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182 :: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
Hiriyanna observes: “The self in the empirical sense is not a detached entity like the puruşa, but exhibits the result of innumerable forces that have acted upon it in the course of its beginningless history. It is consequently not passive and does not remain a mere spectator of whatever happens to be presented to it, but is active and meddles with the external object as it apprehends it.”! For the Sāṁkhya there is a self, and the fact of its bondage is equally true. It results from an interaction between the self and the extenal world. Bondage really means the retention of the effect of this interaction in the form of traces or sāṁskāras generated in the self. The position of the Sāmkhya, as regards the principle of karma, is almost the same as that of the Naiyāyika and the Mimāṁsaka with the exception that the impressions, both actual and potential, are transferred to the region of intellect. (iii) The Advaita Conception
The advaita philosophy propounds the truth of the principle of māyā to explain the worldly process which in the present context is chielfy concerned with the distortion of the powers of the self. This system of thought gets divided mainly into two groups as regards the status of the principle of māyā. On one hand Sankara assigns totally a delusive status to it. Māyā is, in itself, a delusion and it gives rise to delusions which constitute the wordly process. On the other hand Rāmānuja and Aurobindo think that māyā is a real power of the Brahma and the wordly process is a real creation. “This power of self-limitation is necessarily inherent in the boundless all-existent. The infinite will not be infinite, if it could not assume a manifold finiteness; the absolute would not be absolute if it were denied in knowledge and power and will and manifestation being a boundless capacity of self determination.” Whatever may be the status of the principle of māyā in the two systems,
1. M. Hiriyanna: The Essentals of Indian Philosophy, p. 116 2. Aurobindo: Life Divine, p. 408
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