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JAIN PHILOSOPHY & MODERN SCIENCE "O, Lord, Is the soul eternal or non-eternal"
"Gautam," said Lord Mahavira, "the soul is eternal as well as non-eternal"
"O, Lord", asked Gautam Munı "with what end in view can it be said that the soul is eternal as well as non-eternal?"
"Gautam", replied Lord Mahavira, "from the point of view of substance the soul is eternal but from the point of view of different modes it is non-eternal."23
Lord Mahavira never looked upon any subject from exclusively one angle only He used to judge all things from different angles As will be seen in the above cited discussion between Lord Mahavira and Gautam Muni, it appears to be a contradictory statement that the soul can be eternal and non-eternal at the same time But looking at the explanation given by Lord Mahavira to this contradictory appearance of his words, one finds that he has expressed his ideas from different points of view and they are respectively correct in the context of those respective points of view in spite of their appearing to be contradictory.
In the above dialogue the word, From the point of view of substance' bear reference to the soul itself. So putting the underlying idea of the above discourse in other words we come to the conclusion that from
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Bhagwad Shatak 7-4
