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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Nyāya Vais'eşika
275
things in this life remembers the corresponding things of the past life. The things which used to excite joy, fear and grief in the past life continue to do so in this life. The memory of the past proves the previous birth as well as the existence of the soul.": This is one of the arguments forwarded to prove that the soul is enduring and persists in numerous births or survives the deaths of the body. The untaught actions of the children are explained by the present psychologists and biologists as 'instinctive' actions.
The endurance or persistence of the soul is proved also on the moral basis. Gotama says in the Nyāya Sūtras — “If the body were soul, there should be release from sins, as soon as the body was burnt."? In the commentary Vidyabhusa na says that if a person has no soul beyond his body, he should be frred from sins when the body is destroyed. But in reality sins pursue him in his subsequent lives. Hence the body is not soul. The moral law of retribution demands the endurance of the soul who is the doer of actions. The soul that does the action must be the same who should reap the fruits of those actions. The doctrine of Karma implies that the good actions get the good reward of them and, the bad ones are followed by sufferings. It is said in the Bhāsa Pariccheda that the soul is the substratum of merit and demerit in virtue of which it undergoes transmigra
1 Ibid. 3, p. 68. · Ibid. 4, p. 63. TUTTI ITTICI
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