The soul is simple ad without parts it is
formless as the soul is immaterial it has no form. This quality has bee
mentioned in other systems also. The Jaina thinkers were against the
Buddhist idea of the soul as a cluster of khandas Buddhists do not
refer to the permanent soul. It is a composite of mental states called
khanadas . in modern western thought Hume says, � when I enter most
intimately into what I cal myself, I always stumble upon some perception
or other of hear or cold light or shade, love or hatred , pain or
pleasure. I never catch myself any time without perception, and never can
observe anything but the perception,� hoffding stated that the ego has
been looked for in vain as something absolutely simple. The nature of the
ego is manifested in the combination of sensation, ideas and feetlilngsi,
but Herbart maintains that the soul is a simple being not only without
parts but also without qualitative multiplicity. Modern psychology has
emphasized substantiality, simplicity persistence and consciousness as the
attributes of the soul. Descartes has said, I am the thing that thinks,
that is to say who doubts, who affirms. Who loves, who hates and feels.,�
he designates this thing as substance.25
Hamilto advocated the four characteristics
with the greatest explicitness. Other prominent names are those porter,
Calkins, Angelli and Aveling.26
From the phenomenal pint of view jiva
is also desceibed as possessing four pranas. They are sense (indriya),
energy (bala), life (ayus ) and respiration (ana).
The pancastikayasara gives the same description. The idea of
prana is found in Indian and western thought. In the Old Testamet (Fenesis
book I) we read , � the lord God breathed into the nostril the breath of
life and man became a lying soul�. In the primitive men life when it
ceases to blow men die, I the Navaho leagued there is a description of the
life force according to which we see the trace of the wind in the skin at
the tips of fingers parkas refers to psycho-physical factor of the
organism. The jiva assumes the bodily powers when it takes new
forms in each new birth. Whatever thing manifests in the four pranas
live and is Jiva 27 The four pranas are manifest in ten
forms. The indriya expresses itself in five senses . bala may refer to the
mind the body ad speech. Ayus and an are one each. These pranas in
all their details need not be present 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
pranas and the lowest have only four. This has a great biological
and psychological significance. Comparative psychology points out that in
the psycho-physical development of the various animal species at the lower
leave, the chemical sense which is affected by chemical reaction is the
only sense function; and it later becomes the separate sense of test and
smell. Experiment investigations carried b Riley and Forel point out that
the chemicalsense is used but insects like moths even for mating. Fore has
given a top- chemical theory for explaining the behavior of bees. As we go
higher I the scale of life, the chemical sense plays little part. In
birds, sight and smell are wel 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 the Brahamanas and the oldest
Upanisads there is a description of the psyche as consisting of five
pranas. They are regarded are regarded as gactors of the physicao-psychological
life. Occasionally, more than five pranas are mentioned . but
still the idea of a permanent self had not shaped itself . in the third
Adhyaya of the Brahadaranyakopanisad Yajavalka was asked to explained
what happened to a person after the body has been dissolved and the parts
of the psyche has bee remitted to the fire and wind. He avoids the
discussion and suggests that Karama remains after death. 28 This was step
forward towards the formation of the permanent self.
Brahadaranyakopanosad also contains a discussion about the constituent
parts of the soul. Eight instead of five have been suggested. Vijanana
and retah are mentioned . This vijnanamayapurusa
comes nearer to the conception of the soul, although personal immortality
is ot emphasized in Jainism also, the idea of a permanent soul possessing
pranas must have developed on the same lines.
