Soul in Jainism
According to Jainism the souls exist everywhere, not only in living beings, but in inanimate objects as well. They are everywhere, in every rock, in every drop of rain, in every particle of water, in every breeze of the wind, in every tongue of the flame, and in every ray of light. Thus when a man is drinking water, eating some food or lighting a stove to cook his food, he is committing a great sin, because unwittingly he is causing a lot pain and disturbance to the souls hidden in them and forcing them to find new bodies.
A follower of Jainism therefore shows extreme caution in his day to day living as he deals with the various objects of the world. Since he does not want to attract bad karma by disturbing the jivas and forcing them to find new bodies elsewhere, he tries to avoid injury to others to the extent he can sincerely manage.
He shows extreme care in the selection of his food and in the manner of eating it, eating such plant roots and tubers like the potatoes, which he believes contain not one soul but a cluster of souls. He even minimizes the intake of food and water, or the lighting of lamps etc, so that he can save himself from the trouble of destroying unnecessarily living forms in these things. He covers his mouth with white cloth, so that while breathing he is not inhaling the jivas hidden in the insects and invisible creatures and causing them harm. He even moves cautiously so that the jivas hidden in the wind and the air and in the earth or the dust are not disturbed.
Jainism recognizes five types of souls depending upon the number of the senses they possess.1. Those with five senses: Gods, men, beings in the hell and higher animals such as monkeys, elephants, snakes, horses, etc., come under this category. These beings possess manas which gives them varying degrees of intelligence and rationality.
2. Those with four senses: In this category the beings do not possess the sense of hearing. Many insects fall into this category.
3. Those with three senses: In this category, the beings do not possess the sense of hearing and the sense of sight. Many insects are placed under this category including the moths, because of their tendency to move towards light and fire and destroying themselves.
4. Those with two senses. In this category the beings possess only the sense of taste and the sense of touch. Many worms, leeches, shell fish fall into this category.5. Those with only one sense: In this category the beings possess only the sense of touch. These are again divided into five sub categories: i) the plant bodies containing only one soul or a cluster of souls such as the tubers and roots, ii) earth bodies made of earth material such as coals, minerals, stones and so on, iii) water bodies made up of water such rivers, lakes, water falls, lakes, ponds and even a drop of water, iv) fire bodies made up of fire such lightning, a lamp or candle light, or the fire in the kitchen stove, and finally v) the air bodies made of wind and gases such as a breeze or a storm wind.
According to Jainism the whole world is an aggregate of living souls hidden in every form and every object. The number of souls never change, because the souls are eternal and indestructible. When a soul becomes liberated, its place is automatically filled with another soul from another body.
The souls undergo continuous change because of the operation of the law of karma, which binds the soul to the matter and keeps it chained to the cycle of births and deaths. True liberation is when the jiva is freed from all types of association with matter. It happens only when the jiva tries to reduce the inflow of karma and purifies its body through good conduct and non injury to others. The concept of non violence is therefore not just a matter of ethical value in Jainism, but a real necessity for the jivas to become free. Non violence is a way of life in Jainism, because injury to other jivas especially those jivas with higher number of senses attracts the worst form of karma into ones own body and makes liberation extremely difficult.
According to Jainism the souls exist everywhere, not only in living beings, but in inanimate objects as well. They are every where, in every rock, in every drop of rain, in every particle of water, in every breeze of the wind, in every tongue of the flame, and in every ray of light. Thus when a man is drinking water, eating some food or lighting a stove to cook his food, he is committing a great sin, because unwittingly he is causing a lot pain and disturbance to the souls hidden in them and forcing them to find new bodies.
A follower of Jainism therefore shows extreme caution in his day to day living as he deals with the various objects of the world. Since he does not want to attract bad karma by disturbing the jivas and forcing them to find new bodies elsewhere, he tries to avoid injury to others to the extent he can sincerely manage.
He shows extreme care in the selection of his food and in the manner of eating it, eating such plant roots and tubers like the potatoes, which he believes contain not one soul but a cluster of souls. He even minimizes the intake of food and water, or the lighting of lamps etc, so that he can save himself from the trouble of destroying unnecessarily living forms in these things. He covers his mouth with white cloth, so that while breathing he is not inhaling the jivas hidden in the insects and invisible creatures and causing them harm. He even moves cautiously so that the jivas hidden in the wind and the air and in the earth or the dust are not disturbed.
Jainism recognizes five types of souls depending upon the number of the senses they possess.
1. Those with five senses: Gods, men, beings in the hell and higher animals such as monkeys, elephants, snakes, horses, etc., come under this category. These beings possess manas which gives them varying degrees of intelligence and rationality.
2. Those with four senses: In this category the beings do not possess the sense of hearing. Many insects fall into this category.
3. Those with three senses: In this category, the beings do not possess the sense of hearing and the sense of sight. Many insects are placed under this category including the moths, because of their tendency to move towards light and fire and destroying themselves.
4. Those with two senses. In this category the beings possess only the sense of taste and the sense of touch. Many worms, leeches, shell fish fall into this category.
5. Those with only one sense: In this category the beings possess only the sense of touch. These are again divided into five sub categories: i) the plant bodies containing only one soul or a cluster of souls such as the tubers and roots, ii) earth bodies made of earth material such as coals, minerals, stones and so on, iii) water bodies made up of water such rivers, lakes, water falls, lakes, ponds and even a drop of water, iv) fire bodies made up of fire such lightning, a lamp or candle light, or the fire in the kitchen stove, and finally v) the air bodies made of wind and gases such as a breeze or a storm wind.
According to Jainism the whole world is an aggregate of living souls hidden in every form and every object. The number of souls never change, because the souls are eternal and indestructible. When a soul becomes liberated, its place is automatically filled with another soul from another body.
The souls undergo continuous change because of the operation of the law of karma, which binds the soul to the matter and keeps it chained to the cycle of births and deaths. True liberation is when the jiva is freed from all types of association with matter. It happens only when the jiva tries to reduce the inflow of karma and purifies its body through good conduct and non injury to others. The concept of non violence is therefore not just a matter of ethical value in Jainism, but a real necessity for the jivas to become free. Non violence is a way of life in Jainism, because injury to other jivas especially those jivas with higher number of senses attracts the worst form of karma into ones own body and makes liberation extremely difficult.
Jainism says that the soul or the atman is not without any qualities. They are liable to change. The soul expands and contracts depending on the size of the body and the nature of Karma of a jiva. Jains also believe that the jiva or the soul cannot be smaller in size than the body in which it resides. At the time of death the soul contracts and becomes like a tiny seed. Then it starts a new life in a new body.
According to the philosophy of Jainism jivas or souls are infinite in number. They exist eternally in the universe and they can neither be created nor destroyed. It is true that jivas may change their forms based on their evolution and previous activity.
Jain Scriptures have discussed certain categories of Jivas. They are:
1. Nritya-Siddhas the perfect souls
2. Muktas- the souls which are emancipated and would never take a birth again
3. Baddha-those souls which are still held under the cycles of birth and death and there is a continuous inflow of karma into their bodies.
It has been said that the MuktaJivas or the liberated souls enjoy infinite perception, infinite knowledge and an eternal bliss. On the other hand the ordinary jiva continue to suffer from illusion and ignorance. The Karma which continues to inflow in the body prevents the liberation of the soul and the jivas continue to wander amidst the gross matter.
An important aspect of Jain Philosophy is that it regards the presence of soul in every object and so it is very evident that a follower of Jainism carries out his day to day activity with lot of care and caution. A Jain tries his best not to harm or to injure any object because he believes that if he injures a jiva with a soul the soul will be forced to leave the body and find a new body and that is the reason a Jain follower covers his face with a white cloth while breathing because he believes that while breathing he should not injure or harm any living being.
Jainism is dualistic. All things are divided into living and non-living, souls and non-souls.Jainism believes in the plurality of souls. Souls are substances distinct from matter. Souls influence one another. But they are quite distinct from one another and not connected in any higher unity. They may be called spiritual monads. Jainism emphasizes the diversity of souls.
The existence of the soul is a presupposition in the Jain philosophy. Proofs are not necessary. If there are any proofs, they come from pramanas only (from attributes or activities only). William James and James Ward consider self-consciousness and internal perception in this regard.
From the noumenal point of view, the soul is pure and perfect. It is pure consciousness. The soul is unbound, untouched and not other than itself. The soul is one and not composite. The nature of jiva, along with soul or without soul,has been well described. The soul is formless and also its agent. It has the same extent as its body. It is the enjoyer of the fruits of karma. In other words, the soul entrapped in physical body of Jiva, also enjoys the deeds or activities of physical body. This is Karma which may be good or bad also upward or downward. It exists in samsara. Pure Soul not belonging to any Jiva, is siddha and has a characteristic of upward motion. Upward and downward means purity and impurity respectively. Soul can become impure and adopts downward motion, due to Karma during its stay in Jiva which result in repeated births and deaths. In brief, this is reincarnation.
Every jivapossesses an infinite number of qualities. Diversity in quality of Jiva is due to extent as well as content of soul a Jiva has. The author, Glasenapp,mentions eight important characteristics, in his book on ‘Doctrine of Karma’.
1. The faculty of omniscience.
2. The faculty of absolute undifferentiated cognition.
3. Superiority over joy and grief.
4. Possession of belief in complete religious truth, and irreproachable moral conduct.
5. Possession of eternal life.
6. Complete formlessness.
7. Unrestricted energy.
8. Complete equality in rank with other jivas.
From the phenomenal point of view, jivais also described as possessing four pranas. They are sense (indriya), energy (bala), life (ayu), and respiration. The jivaassumes the bodily powers when it takes new forms in each new birth. Whatever thing manifests in the four pranaslives and is jiva. The four pranasare manifest in ten forms. The indriyaexpresses itself in five senses. Balamay refer to the mind, the body and speech. Ayuand anaare one each. These pranasin all their details need not bepresent in all organisms, because there are organisms with less than five sense organs. But there must be the four main characteristics. The most perfectly developed souls have all the ten prinks and the lowest have only four. This has a great biological and psychological significance. Comparative psychology points out that in animal species, the chemical sense which is affected by chemical reaction is the only sense function. Chemical sense becomes sense of taste and smell in later stages. As we go higher in the scale of life, the chemical sense plays little part. In birds, sight and smell are well developed. In mammals, we find a higher degree of qualitative discrimination of smell. As we go higher still; we get the variability of adaptation which may be called intelligence.
In Upanishads there is a description of the psyche as consisting of five pranas. They are regarded as factors of the physico-psychological life. Occasionally, more than five pranasare mentioned. But still the idea of a permanent self had not shaped itself. When it was asked what happens to psyche when the body dies and is remitted to the fire and wind. The Seer suggests that only karma remains after death.
From the phenomenal point of view, the soul is the Lord (prabhu), the doer (karta), enjoyer (bhokta), limited to his body (dehamatra), still incorporeal, and it is ordinarily found with karma. As a potter considers himself as a maker and enjoyer of the clay pot, so, from the practical point of view, the mundane soul is said to be the doer and the enjoyer of sense objects. As the soul produces impure thought-activities and as a consequence, the material karmas, it also enjoys thoughts with the help of the material karmas. Thus, jiva enjoys its thought-created activity. However, from the noumenal point of view, jiva is the doer of suddhabhavasor pure thought (karmas); and from the phenomenal point of view, Jiva can produce ‘ karmic matter’ or ‘material Karmas’.
The process of entanglement in activity and enjoyment is from time immemorial. It gets entangled in the sarimsara and embodied through the operation of karmas. The soul gets various forms due to the materially caused conditions (upadhic), and it is involved in the cycle of birth and death. It is subjected to the forces of karmas which express themselves first through the feelings and emotions and secondly in the chains of very subtle kinds of matter, invisible to the eye and the ordinary instruments of science. When the soul is embodied, it is affected by the environment-physical, social and spiritual, in different ways. Thus, we get the various types of soul existence. The soul embodies itself and identifies itself with the various functions of the bodily and social environment.
William James distinguishes between the self and me, and betweenI and ego. The constituents of the ‘me’may be divided into three classes: the material me, the social me and the spiritual me. A man’s social me is the recognition that he gets from his fellowmen. A man has as many ‘selves’as there are individuals and groups who recognize him. The spiritual me also belongs to the empirical me. But the pure self, the self as the knower, is very different from the empirical self. It is the thinker, that which thinks.
Jainism refers to the size of the soul. Although souls are not of any definite size, they contract and expand according to the size of the body in which they are incorporated for the time being. The soul is capable of adjusting its size to the physical body, as the lamp placed in a large or small room illuminates the whole space of the room.
when size is attributed to the soul, it is possible that it refers to the sphere or extent of the influence that is intended. In the scripture, we read that just as a lotus hued ruby, when placed in a cup of milk, imparts its lustre to the milk, the soul imparts its luster to the whole body.
All these attributes belong to the nature of every soul and they are clearly seen if the jivasare pure and free. However, most of the jivasare not pure and free. They are contaminated by some foreign elements which veil their purity and perfection. The foreign element is karma, subtle and non-material, imperceptible to the senses, and which enters into the soul and causes great changes. The souls are then involved in the wheel of samsara. They become samsarins.
The samsarijivasare classified on the basis of various principles, like the status and the number of sense organs possessed by them. In vegetable kingdom, there are immovable souls. Sir J. C. Bose has pointed out that the vegetable world has capacity for experience. They are one sensed organisms. Earth, water, fire and plants are such jivas. They possess the sense of touch.
The soul is eternally infected with matter. Every moment it is getting new matter. In the normal course of things, it has no end. But the deliverance of the soul from the wheel of samsara is possible by voluntary means. By the process of sarizvara the soul can stop the influx of karma; by nirjara it can eliminate the karma already glued to the soul. Then all obstacles are removed and the soul becomes pure and perfect, free from the wheel of samsara. Being free, with its upward motion the jiva attains the liberation .These characteristics of the soul are mentioned from the practical point of view. Defilement of the soul takes place when the karma pours into the soul. This is called asrava. The soul then begins to experience mundane and emotional experiences or moksa.
Thus the liberated souls remain pure and free. Pure and perfect souls live in eternal bliss. But they do not lose their identity as the Vedantinwould emphasize. In the eighth khandaof the Chandogyopanisad, it is said that when a man depart hence his speech is merged in mind, his mind in breath, his breath in fire, which in the highest being is sat.Now, that which is the subtle essence has its self. In the eleventh khandaalso, we read that when the body withers and dies and the living self leaves it, the living self dies not. This self is Spiritual Self, formless, pure, no trace of earthly matter.
Now we come nearer to the concept of the soul. It differs from the Jaina concept in that the soul here does not possess its distinct personality, for in mukti, the jivais merged in Brahman and its individuality is lost. The never ceasing struggle of the soul is an important tenet in Jainism. The earth planet is not an amusement park, but a platform to carry out the fight for perfection, through co-operation, creativity and compassion.
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