Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Jainism distinguishes between the soul and the mind. The mind is a special (virtual) structure of the soul that can analyze and synthesize perceptions. We have seen earlier in Chapter 6 that during its journey of development the soul acquires a mode with five senses and a mind. At this stage, the soul has a new structure (the mind) that helps with further progress. The development of the soul also implies the development of its faculties. The psychical faculties are the force behind the formation of the mind. This force helps the soul in the process of thinking, imagining, planning and taking decisions, feeling, and willing, quickly and in the real time that is required to make choices in the path of spiritual development. The physical mind does not possess consciousness, which is the exclusive property of the soul (and psychical mind), but it is manifested with the consciousness of the soul and is influenced by karma in its working. The state of the mind is a function of karma and changes with psychical karma. The mind is not a permanent entity; it exists only when consciousness manifests as thoughts, beliefs, desires, emotions and feelings.
Jainism recognizes two types of minds: (1) physical mind (dravyamanah) and (2) psychical mind (bhavamanah).
Physical mind. This is the physical counterpart of the psychical mind and is composed of manovargana, a subtle class of matter. This part of the mind interacts with the brain and nervous system. The physical mind attracts pudgala of manovargana from its surroundings during any mental activity. Good-quality manovargana enters the physical mind when bhava, thoughts, are good; these have favorable effects on the body. Bad thoughts have the opposite effects.
Psychical mind. This is the part of the mind that thinks, imagines, plans, discriminates and takes decisions. The psychical mind consists of the psychical impurity that is in action, of the soul or the impure mode of the soul. The psychical mind has two divisions: labdhi (potential power), or the unveiled jnana; and upayoga (manifestation), its engagement with an object. A pure soul does not have a mind.
The mind has two properties: singularity and individuality. It can have only one thought at a time. If we had many minds, we could have many thoughts simultaneously. In contrast, the omniscient or pure soul has the power of plurality; it can conceive many thoughts and have full knowledge at one time. The physical and psychical (spiritual) parts of the mind are intimately correlated. The psychical mind cannot function without the physical mind. Together they perform mental activities. The physical mind exists because of the power of the soul and acts on a physical plane. The physical mind interacts with the environment and influences the soul. Thus, the mind establishes a connection between the soul and its environment. The mind is not free in its operation; it depends on the state of the karma body and the physical body, particularly the brain. As long as the mind exists, this connection exists and the soul bonds karma. In the emancipated state of the soul, the veil of psychical karma disappears, the mind ceases to exist, and bondage of karma does not take place.
The mind is identified by its faculty of thinking, imagining, discriminating and memorizing. The mind remembers the past, thinks of the present and imagines the future. All of these activities are difficult to stop; making the mind "still" is a difficult proposition. When these activities are stopped, the mind ceases to exist. Mind is one, but its modes are many; it can assume a mode as per our wish. Therefore, the mind can present a thought from a multitude of perspectives.
The physical mind made up of subtle matter differs from the karma body, which is also made up of subtle matter. The karma body transmigrates with the soul, but the physical mind does not. It is created in each new birth. The subtle matter of both kinds can store and code information. The physical mind, like the karma body, also performs this function. Information is generated in the psychical mind by the cognition process, as discussed in Chapter 4, and is supposed to be recorded on the physical mind. The information in the physical mind is lost at death.
Besides cognition activity, the soul also learns from experience: we learn to speak, learn languages, learn mathematics, and so on. Once learnt, these activities are repeated in our life. The soul performs repetitive activities very efficiently and it creates programmes for repeated use. These programmes are stored in the physical mind as codes. As our learning increases these programmes are updated by the soul.
I will now attempt to construct a simple model of the mind for further analysis of the interaction between the mind and body. We know that the karma body stores memories of past lives, which are also accepted by cognitive scientists to be present at the time of birth. The physical mind contains records of thoughts, beliefs, desires, emotions, feelings, and the memories of this life. We can, therefore, consider the karma body to be the unconscious mind and the physical mind to be the conscious mind in order to make a comparison between the Jain and modern views. The karma body actually performs a very wide range of functions compared to what is normally assigned to the unconscious mind, so a comparison between them requires some clarification. It would be more appropriate to consider the unconscious mind as consisting of two parts: the psychical unconscious, which directs the conscious mind, and the biological unconscious, which directs biological activities and the autonomic and other involuntary bodily functions. The former is a part of psychical karma and the latter is a part of biological karma. In higher organisms, the conscious mind may be assumed to develop as an extension of the fiery body, which also contains the "prana" body. We know by experience that the conscious mind and "prana" body are intimately connected and influence each other, and so may be considered parts of the same unit the fiery body.
The conscious mind contains memories of this life, whether we remember them or not. The forgotten memories can usually be recalled through special attention or when reminded by someone else, so here they are not distinguished from memories we are conscious of. All memories can be retrieved and brought to the attention of the conscious mind. The memories of past lives stored in the unconscious mind also direct our drives, instincts, desires, needs and impulses, and influence the conscious mind. Sometimes we are not able to assign any cause for a particular action we indulge in, like how animal-like instincts in human beings indicate our past animal history. If a source cannot be traced in this life, it must belong to past lives. This brings us to the question of the division of ego and super-ego in the conscious and unconscious mind. Freud's proposition that ego and super-ego are partly conscious and partly unconscious is supported here, but with the difference that the unconscious part is a karma record, the operation of which is based on rules different from that of the conscious part. Our actions and behavior are guided by the conscious memories of this life and the input from the unconscious mind as karmas.
