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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
moment by our consciousness, and it is a non-composite, partless and unbreakable presentation.
Furthermore, I can have an idea of an object that may be rough, smooth, hot, cold, light, heavy, hard or soft ; but the idea itself, that is, my knowledge of an object is neither cold, nor hot, nor smooth, nor rough, nor had, nor soft. In the like manner colour is to be found in the objects outside in the world ; but none in the mind. This will also hold good of taste and smell and sound.
Knowledge, then,
ci) consists in the states of a non-composite and partless, that is,
individualistic substance, (ii) is natural to, that is, inherent (unmanufactured) in the per
ceiving faculty, (iii) is infinite, and (iv) devoid of material qualities, colour, taste and the like.
Now, a thing that is not made up of parts is eternal, being unbreakable, indestructible and indissoluble. The faculty of knowledge, the partless substance whose function is conscious perception, is, then, immortal. As such it is, and may properly be termed, soul!
There are other arguments which prove the simplicity of the soul substance. Logical inference is possible only because there is one unitary consciousness. If you spread out the contents and implications of the premises of a syllogism and distribute them, like the details of an image, over a composite area, there would be no one to grasp the logical connection on the strength of which a conclusion is to be drawn from them. Memory, too, will not be possible for a composite being, nor an abstract idea, e.g., beauty, which is, by nature, indivisible.
The soul is, therefore, an undeniable reality. It is pure consciousness, that is to say, in other words, an embodiment of infinite knowledge, and a totally different kind of substance from matter.
The Jainas and the Hindus actually recognise the soul as endowed with infinite knowledge (omniscient). The Buddhists also maintain
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