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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Pūrva-Msmāṁsā
Kumārila Bhațța says-"We hold that the Soul is something different from the body, the sense organs and ideas, and that it is eternal; while all the rest, the body, etc., are perishable."! The soul and the body cannot be identified because the body is perishable while the soul is imperishable or eternal. The simple proposition “My body is weak” clearly indicates that there is a difference between the body and that entity to which it belongs. The body and the possessor of the body are not one and the same. The possessive case denoting 'my' or 'mine' leads to the inference of that which owns the body as his; and that is the 'soul'. Another important reason to distinguish the body from the soul is that the body does not possess those properties which the soul is supposed to possess. The body possesses some properties like the colour, height, etc., which are perceptible by others, and therefore they can be known by others; but some properties like knowledge, pleasure, pain, etc., are known only by the individual who experiences them. They cannot be known by others in the same objective way as the physical properties like colour, etc., of body. One can only indirectly understand the pelasure or pain of others from the similarity of his own experience of pleasure and pain. Such experiences are exclusive to each individual and they cannot be attributed to the physical body. Though they invariably depend upon the existence of the body they cannot be called as the gupas or properties of the body. Had they been
1 Ibid. p. 383,
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