Treatise on Jainism

Author(s): Jayantibhai S Sanghvi
Publisher: S J Sanghvi

Page 63

CHAPTER IV
THE SEVEN TATVAS
(PRINCIPLLS)
The Tatvas or the Principles are seven : (1) Jiva, Soul, (2) Ajiva, Non-Soul, (3) Asrava, Inflow, (4) Bandh, Bondage, (5) Samvara, the check of Inflow. (6) Nirjara, the shedding of previously bound up Karmas, and (7) Moksha, Liberation from all Karmic contact. I & II. Jiva & Ajiva. All that exists. is included in one or other of the two principles, Soul and Non-Soul. While a man is alive, it is the Soul in his body which perceives and knows all objects. A body without Soul is incapable of perceiving or knowing anything. Material objects such as a pen, table or chair cannot feel or know anything. They are unconscious or inanimate substances. The Soul is the only conscious substance. Looked at from the real point of view even a mundane i.e. embodied Soul is pure, peaceful, all knowing and all blissful. It is potentially so. From the practical point of view such a Soul experiences various kinds of pain and pleasure in different conditions