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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Pūrva-Mímāsasa
409
of direct perception by the mind (7176KTT) as the substratum of the “I” element in knowledge. But Sabaraswāms believes that the soul is Sva-sanıvedya or directly perceived as one's own Self in the sense that it cannot be directly cognised in the same way by other persons. The souls of others can be cognised by the activities similar to those of ours. The soul is eternal, and it transmigrates in accordance with the adssta. The souls are many in number so that each person possesses his own soul separately to maintain his independence. Kumārila and Prabhakara agree in holding that the soul is not self-illuminating (svayam prakās'a ).
The Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā system is driven to the inference of the existence of the soul from the sacrifices which are performed. The sacrifices that are performed are not without purpose. They are supposed ultimately to enable the performer to go to the heaven; but the body of the performer being material, and hence perishable, cannot rise to the heaven; hence the necessity of some entity which is the performer of action, and which is immaterial so that it may rise to the heaven, and that entity is the soul. The word “Esha” in the II aphorism of the S'lokavārtika indicates the existence of the soul.' As Kumārila Bhatta says—“The Vedas have declared that the results of sacrifices pertain to the performer in some birth or other; and if the Soul were nothing more than mere Idea, then it could
1 Kumārila Bhatta : S'lokavārtika, Section 18, p. 382. Tr. Ganganath Jha.
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