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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
154
Ātmap and Mokya
for anitya or pratītya.”! This doctrine of void is also known as one of Emptiness.
The Mädhyamikas do not recognise the Self as an independent entity existing by itself, because they believe that nothing can exist by itself. The Madhyamikas hold that no substance could exist apart from its qualities; so also there is no Self as an independent entity apart from the states of consciousness. There is no soul prior to acting, feeling and thinking. S. Radhakrishnan quotes the following passage from Nágārjuna - Nāgārjuna says in Chapter VI-“But how can we know that it existed prior to acts. If soul could exist prior and therefore without the act of seeing, cannot seeing take place independent of soul ? The soul does not exist in the elements from which the acts of seeing, hearing and feeling proceed."? He thus proves that the Self is an unnecessary assumption for explaining the psychical phenomena; for if the soul exists prior to the acts of seeing, etc. it should be known before such acts take place, but that is against our experience; hence, the Self cannot exist before the acts begin. Nor can it become existent posterior to such acts; because if these acts can take place independently of the Self, there is no necessity of the Self which is supposed to be agent of these acts. In fact, the Self is revealed and becomes existent in these various psychical acts. The appearance of the Self and its acts are simultaneous according to the Madhyamikas. The
1 Suzuki D. T. : Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, P. 173. 2 Radhakrishnan S. : Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 652.
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