Consciousness: Issues in Western Philosophy and Understanding It in Jainism Perspective

The concept of soul and consciousness was well established in ancient India.Western philosophy faces several problems in explaining consciousness.Consciousness and intelligence is the property of soul in Jainism.Jainism is a comprehensive system describing the role of karma,relation between the soul,mind and the body,and the cognition processes.The paper describes the Jain system,examines the issues on consciousness in western philosophy and shows that these issues do not arise in the Jain scheme.

Matter （Pudgalastikaya or Pudgala） in Jain Philosophy

Pudgalastikaya is one of the six constituent dravyas of loka in Jainism and is the only substance that is sense perceptible. The sense attributes ofpudgala are colour, taste, smell, and touch properties which become the basis of its diversity of forms and structures. The smallest constituent of pudgala is paramanu; the other forms are its combinations. The combination ofparmanus forms various states of the matter. The paper describes different types of combinations and modes, rules for combinations and properties of aggregates known as vargana. Some varganas associate with the soul and form various types of bodies of organisms and others exist as forms of matter in loka （universe）. The paramanu defines the smallest units of energy, space, time, and sense quality ofpudgala. Pudgala exists in visible and invisible forms but anything that is visible is definitely pudgala. Pudgala is classified in various ways; one of them is on the basis of touch property and there are pudgalas having two touches, four touches, and eight touches, each class having some specific character that differentiates them in respect of stability and motion. Pudgala is also classified as living, prayoga-parinat, and non-living, visrasa-parinat. The living matter existing as bodies of organisms exhibits some properties that are not found in non-living matter. Modem science has no such distinction which has become a cause of confusion in recognizing the existence of soul. The description of body remains incomplete without considering the presence of soul in the body. In modem terms, aparamanu is a vibrating and moving charge that is bosonic in character. The two-touch and four-touch pudgala do not appear to follow the speed limits prescribed by Special Theory of Relativity. Jain canonical works describe two types of motions sparshad type and asparshad type and these determine the motions of different class ofpudgala and soul. Jain philosophy describes the dynamics and motion ofparmanu in detail. The paper describes the Jain concepts of matter in detail and compares with the modem concepts to highlight the strength of Jain views. Modem science has explored the properties and behavior of matter in great detail but still there are many concepts that Jain philosophy has to offer.

Intelligent Subtle Forces and Fields Decide Human Performance:Jain Perspective–I

In this article,emphasis is laid on the manifesting powers of the soul.The powers of the soul manifest as working intelligent force called here as faculties.Eight faculties are defined corresponding to eight types of karma.A schematic model of human system based on Jain principles and scientific findings is presented.The role of DNA and its inadequacies as physical force is discussed.It is stated that genes are only coding devices and the biological intelligence of the soul provides the information for design and structure of the body.The role of biophotons in regulating the biochemistry and biology of life is discussed.Scientific evidence suggests that biophotons originate from the coherent field in DNA.It is argued that the karman body exists as coherent field and the karmanvarganas shedding off the karman body form the biophotons.These biophotons have the information for the reactions to take place in cells.In this model,biophoton provides a link between the karman body and the gross physical body.