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ESSENCE OF SOUL
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inhabit different form of bodies, successively while passing through the cycles of birth and death. With its own efforts it overcomes all the Karmas and attains salvation where its spiritual potentiality is manifest."
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According to Jain Philosophy the soul has the characteristic of contraction and expansion. It consists of innumerable points known as pradesh. In contraction it can stay even in the smallest space but. when expanded it pervades the whole inhabited universe (Loka) The soul associated with Karmas, occupies the space as per the dimensions of the body occupied by it The soul of an elephant and that of an ant are originally alike. The only difference is that whereas one has been expanded into the body of an elephant the other has been contracted to that of an ant. If after death the soul of an elephant comes into the body of an ant, it contracts due to its characteristic of contraction and pervades the body of the ant wholly Not a single point of the soul remains uncovered by the body In the same way if after death the soul of an ant attains the life of an elephant it expands due to its characteristic of expansion and its pervades the whole body of the elephant. Here too, not a single point of the body remains without the soul.
One of the very important conception of the Jain Philosophy is that it believes in the plurality of souls. Each and every soul can become one with God after
