Verse 311 (the doctrine of ‘Soul’ according to the Digambara Jainas)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

जैमिनीया इव प्राहुर्जैनाश्चिल्लक्षणं नरम् ।
द्रव्यपर्यायरूपेण व्यावृत्त्यनुगमात्मकम् ॥ ३११ ॥

jaiminīyā iva prāhurjaināścillakṣaṇaṃ naram |
dravyaparyāyarūpeṇa vyāvṛttyanugamātmakam || 311 ||

This Jainas, like the Mīmāṃsakas, assert that the person (soul) is characterised by ‘sentience’; that, in the form of ‘substance’, it is inclusive, and in the form of ‘successive factors’, it is exclusive.—(311)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The Author now proceeds to refute the ‘soul’ postulated by the Digambara (Jaina):—[see verse 311 above]

‘Jainas’, i.e., the Digambaras.—They assert as follows The Soul is characterised by Sentience only; and in the form of Substance, it remains the same under all states, and as such is ‘inclusive’ (comprehensive) in its nature; while in the form of successive factors, being distinct with each state, it is ‘exclusive’ in its nature. This two-fold character of the Soul is cognised by direct Perception, and hence does not stand in need of being proved by other proofs. Thus that ‘Sentience’ which is found to continue to exist through all the states, even though these states are diverse, in the forms of Pleasure and the rest,—is ‘substance’; while the ‘successive factors’ consist of the diverse states which appear one after the other; and all these are distinctly perceived”.

Such is the view of the other party (the Digambara Jainas).—(311)

The refutation of this view proceeds with the following—[see verse 312 next]