Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/205

VI] Souls 18 9 a description. This is directly against the view of the great Mlmarpsa authority Prabhakara 1. The soul in its pure state is possessed of infinite perception (allanta-darsalla), infinite know- ledge (ananta-ji/ana), infinite bliss (allallta-sukha) and infinite power (ananta-virya)2. I t is all perfect. Ordinarily however, with the exception of a few released pure souls (mukta-j'iva), all the other jlvas (sa1!zsiirill) have all their purity and power covered with a thin veil of karma matter which has been accumulating in them from beginningless time. These souls are infinite innumber. They are substances and are eternal. They in reality occupy innumer- able space-points in our mundane world (lokiikiisa), have a limited size (1'Jzadhyama-parimii"!la) and are neither all-pervasive (vibhu) nor atomic (au); it is on account of this that jiva is called Jivastikaya. The word astiktiya means anything that occupies space or has some pervasiveness; but these souls expand and contract themselves according to the dimensions of the body which they occupy at any time (bigger in the elephant and smaller in the ant life). It is well to remember that according to the J ains the soul occupies the whole of the body in which it lives, so that from the tip of the hair to the nail of the foot, wherever there may be any cause of sensation, it can at once feel it. The manner in which the soul occupies the body is often ex- plained as being similar to the manner in which a lamp illumines the whole room though remaining in one corner of the room. The J ains divide the jlvas according to the number of sense-organs they possess. The lowest class consists of plants, which possess only the sense-organ of touch. The next higher class is that of worms, which possess two sense-organs of touch and taste. N ext come the ants, etc., which possess touch, taste, and smell. The next higher one that of bees, etc., possessing vision in addition to touch, taste, and smell. The vertebrates possess all the five sense-organs. The higher animals among these, namely men, denizens of hell, and the gods possess in addition to these an inner, sense-organ namely ma1zas by virtue of which they are 1 See Pra11leyakama'a11liirtalda, p. 33- 2 The Jains distinguish between darfana andjl1ana. Darsana is the knowledge of things without their details, e.g. I see a cloth. J fiana means the knowledge of details, e.g. I not only see the cloth, but know to whom it belongs, of what quality it is, where it was prepared, etc. In all cognition we have first darsan:!!. and then jfiana. The pure souls possess infinite general perception of all things as well as infinite knowledge of all things in all their details.