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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
or touched, is a substance which need not occupy space and need not have any tangibility, but it may exist although it may not have any form.3 Sight is an impression made on the nerves of the eye by vibrations sent forth from the object perceived and this impression which we call sight, if there are no vibrations coming out of the object, is of course not produced; but if this substance influences us in certain ways the implication is that there is something moving or producing vibrations, and these cannot exist unless there is some material substance which is vibrating. The very fact that something is moving in some way and influences us in some peculiar way implies that there is something material about this. If there are no vibrations the substance is not material. It need not exist in a form which will give us the impression of any colour, smell, etc. There is nothing which can partake both of the attributes of soul and of matter; the attributes of matter are directly contrary to those of the soul. While one has its life in the other, it does not become the other.
How can that soul live in matter when its attributes are of a different nature ? By our own experience we know that we are obliged to live in surroundings which are not congenial to us, which are not of our own nature. People feel that they are not related to their surroundings, there must be some reason for their being obliged to live in those surroundings, but there must be a reason in the intelligence itself; it cannot be in the material substance. We know that this is a fact, because intelligence cannot proceed from any thing
3. That soul does not occupy space only means that it is not
something physical; for strictly speaking, the Jaina does maintain that there obtains some sort of relationship between the substance called 'soul'and that called 'space'. The printed text here contains some bracketed material but that is redundant.
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