The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti

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THE TRUTH
but a simple and indivisible entity. Hermann Lotze says "the conclusion we have now reached is usually expressed by saying that the soul is an indivisible and simple substance"--Ibid. p. 178.
The next characteristic of consciousness is its psychic nature as distinguished from the physical nature of matter or material objects. Evolution in reference to matter means the improvement or modification of bodies through continuous readjustment of molecular groupings. Evolution in respect of mind means the enrichment of consciousness by internal lucidity and expansion of thought., Consciousness is a World in itself which can be peopled by.an infinity of ideas, impressions and concepts. Every soul is endowed with potential omniscience and may recover it by discovering itself. Knowledge is not a thing that can be said to have a concrete existence outside the being of a conscious entity, consisting, as it does, in nothing other than states of the spirit itself, that are usually described as states of consciousness. There are things outside ourselves, not knowledge; and our sense of awareness of things is called their knowledge. :
The soul being a kind of substance (different and distinct from matter), its basic properties must be the same wherever it may be found, even though it may differ from one another in respect of its actual manifestation. This difference among souls is due to admixture with a foreign substance-matter, in varying proportions.
Matter is known to influence our consciousness even in a gross form e. g., effect of liquor. The matter which attaches itself to the soul is of the finest type-may be electromagnetic energy or even a finer form if possible. The resulting compound i. e., the impure soul is unable to manifest its real basic qualities, probably in the same way as oxygen is unable to exhibit its real properties when compounded with hydrogen to form water. All the same, the inherent attributes of consciousness and knowledge does not leave the soul in any of its states, even though its manifestation may be dimmed in the impure state.
4.3 As all souls are basically similar, like the atoms of an element, it follows that what one soul knows, all others can also know. It is on this principle that education is imparted in modern schools and colleges. Hence each soul has an inherent capacity within it to know all that everyone else knew in the past, all that everyone knows in the