5.3. Singularity and Plurality of Individual Self

It is also a matter of debate among philosophical systems whether the individual soul exists in singular or plural. In worldly life it is very clear that each and every creature has its own pleasures, pains and feelings. But on discussing about the ultimate reality, the non-dual systems cannot accept the plurality of selves. Systems like Sāṅkhya accept and justify the reality of plurality of selves.^[1]

Utpala says that one and the only soul exists in every being, and it is Maheśvara:

svātmaiva sarvajantūnāṃ eka eva maheśvaraḥ^[2]

Here the word Sarvajantūnāṃ (of all creatures) denotes the plurality of individuals. But in the same verse one and only Maheśvara (eka eva maheśvaraḥ) denotes the oneness or singularity. Thus it is clear that although there are a lot of individuals, but the essence underlies in only one Ātma. According to Pratyabhijñā the plurality is caused by Māyā the deluding power of Maheśvara. From the first verse to the last Utpala explicitly says that the individual self accepted in Pratyabhijñā is one and the same Maheśvara, even though it seems as many.^[3] Advaita Vedānta also denies the plurality of the soul. It also accepts that the plural experience is due to Māyā.^[4] In Māṇḍūkyakārikābhāṣya and other works Śaṅkara logically established the non-dual entity of selves after refuting the Sāṅkhyas and other Dvaitins.^[5] But in Vyavahāra (empirical level), which is accepted by both systems, there exist the plurality of selves.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

jananamaraṇakaraṇānāṃ pratiniyamādayugapatpravṛtteśca | puruṣabahutvaṃ siddhaṃ traiguṇyaviparyayāccaiva || Sāṅkhyākārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa, 18.

[2]:

Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā, 4.1.1.

[3]:

cidātmaiva hi devo'ntaḥsthitamicchāvaśādbahiḥ | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā, 1.5.7. eṣa cānantaśaktitvāt evamābhāsayatyamūn | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā, 2.4.1.

[4]:

Vide Advaitaprakaraṇa in Māṇdūkyakārikā and in its Bhāṣya.

[5]:

Ibid., 3.5-7. Also vide Brahmasūtra-śāṅkara-bhāṣya, 2.3.50-51; BUSB, 2.1.20.