Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

Author(s): S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 73

The Soul :: 69
power of Brahma. It gives rise to a creation of real selves and a real world. Difference and change are real characteristics of the world and are not delusive both physically and psychically. As Aurobindo observes. “both of these lines of thought start from one reality; but one ends in universal illusionism while the other in universal realism." Hegel and the Neo Hegelians, for whom the differences and appearances of the visible world are not delusive, may also be included in the second group. It does not matter much whether the ultimate reality is of the nature of consciousness or thought, for both the cases, may be held to cover only a partial identity of the soul. Thought, if taken only literally is not the only form of consciousness, hence Hegel's thought must mean something more than what we generally mean by thought. In the same way the psychologist will object to the contention that consciousness alone is the form of existence of the psyche. The Jaina is also of opinion that thought is a mode of the knowledge-attribute and consciousness does not represent all the attributes of the soul, though it represents the essential nature of the soul. Whatever may be the form of idealism it must start with the fact of consciousness and somehow derive matter from it. Berkeley may be said to belong to the third group which stands between the two aforesaid groups. Berkeley does not derive the material existence from spirit but holds that the ideas themselves are so read that one is deluded to think that there is an external world. Berkeley agrees with Sankara in holding that the spiritual reality does not transform into matter but differs from him in holding that the differences are true in the psychical sense. He agrees with Rāmānuja and Hegel in denying the immutability of the spiritual principle; but differs from them in assigning no reality to the world of matter.
Unlike materialism the basic conception of idealism is the emanation of matter from a spiritual principle. The positions of idealism and materialism may, in this respect,
1. Aurobindo: Divine life, vol. II, p. 185