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The Jaina Theory of Liberation and the Non-absolute :: 225
Actually speaking there is nothing to be deluded, because the only reality of Advaita Vedānta, i.e., the Brahma, being immutable, cannot itself be deluded. The delusive appearance must be actually comprehended by some one though it may be caused by the preceiving mind itself. Unless there is someone to be deluded, the talk of delusion cannot be meaningful. Again delusion is not the nature of Brahma, hence Brahma itself cannot be the cause of delusion. Māyā must come out to be a distinct antithesis of Brahma, if any reality is granted to the individual soul and its bondage. To make ethics real bondage and the mundane existence of the jīva must be taken to be true. Samantabhadra remarks that in the absolutism of Advaita there is no possibility of science and nescience, and bondage and liberation. Actually speaking both for the Samkhya and the Advaitin there is no liberation, because for the former the individual self was never fallen while for the latter there is no individual self at all.
The Jaina Conception of Mokşa
The Jaina conception of Mokşa is based on the Jaina theory of the soul and its bondage by karmas. The soul and the karmas both are existential categories of Jaina philosophy. Hence liberation must be an actual event in the life-history of the soul. No member in the Jaina theory of the soul's bondage and liberation is reduced to featurelessness or a delusion. The soul, its bondage and its liberation are all existential facts. At the same time inspite of depriving the soul of its attributes the Jaina grants an undisturbed pure manifestation of the faculties of the soul in the state of liberation. Karmas obscured and distorted these faculties, hence freedonm from karmas would mean their liquidation from the soul. Umāsvāti describes mokşa as the total expulsion of the karmas from the soul.2 Subhacandra says:
1. Samantabhadra: Aptamimāṁsā, verse 25 2. Umāsvāti: Tattvārthasūtra, 10.2
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