Acharya Mahaprajna
| Rajendra: | All our thoughts are certainly filtered out of social events. |
| Muni Shree: | Possibly yes, but it is not absolutely true. Quite often our conscious mind gets directions from the deeper subconscious mind. |
| Rajendra: | Is something new born out of it? |
| Muni Shree: | There is no event, which can be said to be completely new. The incarnation of Narsingh (sharing the form of man and lion) is a new event, but it has a combination of man and lion. All peculiarity is combinatorial in nature. Even scientific experiments are not altogether new. Existence of any two is not new; what is new is the combination of any two out of infinite possibilities. What are all the medicines we have? Nothing but botanical combinations. There is nothing new from the beginning to the end. What is new is the use of combination. |
| Jainendra: | The cause of the enactment of thought is not within. It is the prevalent situation or time. |
| Rajendra: | Egotism is a part of our reaction. |
| Muni Shree: | Egotism has something more to it than itself and it is combinatorial. Newton gave us the Law of Gravitation. The idea of the Law was born of an external factor. There was no classical knowledge behind it. The idea arose as soon as he saw an apple falling. If the Law of Gravitation had been merely a reaction to events, it could have happened earlier also and could have been anyone else's. Why did it happen to Newton only and not to someone else's? So before concluding this discussion let it be understood that anything new is born by a combination of individual competence and external event. |
| Rajendra: | What is the difficulty in not accepting the soul? |
| Muni Shree: | There is no difficulty. It is natural not to accept it. Accepting it needs valour. What is visible is not soul. Therefore, it is easier to be a nonbeliever than to be a believer. |
| Jainendra: | Belief is something that is present right from the birth. Non-belief comes with the development of the intellect. I was a believer in the beginning; then for a number of years I called myself a non-believer, and now again I have started thinking that I am a believer. The first spell of being a believer ended a little too soon. |
| Muni Shree: | This belief was made possible as a result of individual pursuit. Instrumentalities like the mind, the senses, the body etc. are not directly helpful in gaining knowledge of the existence of the soul. The doctor can dissect the body into very minute pieces; yet the soul is not seen anywhere. That is why I am saying that it is surprising to believe in the existence of soul. |
| Jainendra: | I do concede that there is something, but it is not soul. |
| Muni Shree: | You believe in the consummation of soul, but do not believe in its uninterrupted existence. Acceptance of the eternal soul is regarded to be used on faith in manifoldness. Use of the intellect for the purpose results in arguments and counter-arguments between two advocates and proves completely unavailing. It will be difficult to deny the existence of the soul once the aspect consisting faith, experience and contemplation is reinforced. |
| Rajendra: | Is it possible for consciousness to exist without the body? |
| Jainendra: | It is Pret |
| Rajendra: | Either Pret does not exist and if it does exist it cannot be disembodied. |
| Muni Shree: | Electricity has the power to eliminate that, which is manifested in a bulb. Similarly soul is manifested in body. |
| Rajendra: | Why is then electricity given primacy and not the bulb? |
| Muni Shree: | Electricity occurs, it is not produced in the bulb. Similarly, the soul is not born in the body it is interwoven with the body. |
| Rajendra: | What is the scientific method of realizing that soul is different from the body? |
| Jainendra: | Why do you think it so necessary to press this difference? |
| Muni Shree: | You have laboratories. You can investigate and examine the minutest parts of the body. But where are the means of knowing the soul freed from the body? We have five senses as means to cognition. They can perceive sound, form, smell, taste, and touch. These things can be known by the body, but there is nothing to enable us to know the soul present in the body. If you are really interested in understanding the difference between the body and the soul, the means to do it is meditation. I would be surprised if such an understanding does not come as a result of adequate meditation. |
| Jainendra: | It is only when religion spells valour that spirituality can be accomplished. Otherwise feebleness prevails, leading to injustice. |
| Muni Shree: | There are five words: rise |
| Jainendra: | There was valour even in the word Jina |
| Rajendra: | It is in the name Jainendra also. |
| Jainendra: | Jainendra is a combination of Jina and Indra |
| Muni Shree: | The feeling of being spiritually destitute implies the sovereignty of all the three worlds (this world, the other world and the nether world). |
