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________________ The Jaina Idea of Universe Prof. M. S. Ranadive In metaphysics, man through different ages and stages of philosophy has observed the self and the non-self. He has always tried to give importance to the one or the other or to strike a sort of compromise between the two. He has formulated either one substance, like the Brahma of the Vedantist or the matter of the materialist or else many substances like the Samkhya. Jainism takes its stand upon a common sense basis, which can be varified by everyone for himself. Jaina metaphysics divides the Universe into two everlasting, uncreated, coexisting but independent categories (i) Jiva (the soul) and (ii) Ajiva (the non-soul). Logically it is a perfect division and unassailable. The soul is the higher and the only responsible category. Except in its perfect condition in the final stage of Nirvana (liberation), it is the always in combination with matter. The body (the non-soul---Ajiva) is the lower category, and must be subdued by the soul. According to Jainism, the Universe is uncreated and existing from eternity though undergoing modifications. Any object of knowledge that exists is called Artha which must be associated with Dravya (substance), Guna (quality) and Paryaya (modification). A substance exists in its own nature and has its own attributes and modifications. Moreover, it is united with Utpada or Sambhava (origination). Vyaya or Nasa (destruction) and Dhrauvya or Sthiti (permanence), which are at one and the same time? One modification of a substance originates and other one vanishes; but the substance remains the same. Viz., the golden ring is changed into a new form called an earring, one form vanishes and the other one originates; but the substance gold remains the same. Substance is divided into (1) Jiva (soul) and (II) Ajiva (non-soul). 1. Jiva-Soul is the central theme in the Jaina system. The soul is not created by anybody, nor is anybody created by the soul. It is essentially an unit of Cetana (consciousness) and Upayoga (conation). The soul is eternal but not of a definit size, since it contracts or expands according to the dimension of the body in which it is incorporated for the time beings. Souls are classified under two principle heads : Sansari (mundane) and Mukta (liberated). Liberated souls will be embodied no more; they have accomplished absolute purity; they dwell in the state of perfection in Nirvana at the top of the universe and have no more to do with worldly affairs. Mundane souls are the embodied souls of living beings in the world and still subject to the Cycle of Birth. Mundane souls are Sthavara (immobile) and Trasa (mobile). 1. 'taM pariyANahi dabva tuhu~ ra guNapajjayajutta / HEMIE fearg TUT F**9933 TT1',CATAT, I/57 2. cete prafuo 397 Ha oifa STT 11', qzarfatru, 10 3. rahoita to', ZTE, 1 4. sitat gor h a ', 99TANT, II 35 5. 3r ETHIT for 1', T HEFT , I51 6. 'erfront granai', auraifa, II/10 jaina darzana mImAMsA 4
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________________ Being caused by Asubha (inauspicious) and Subha (auspicious) Karman, they wander in the cycle of the four grades of existence, i.e., Naraki (denizens of hell), Tiryanca (lower animals), Manuja (men) and Deva (gods). II. Ajiva-Non-soul is lacking of sentiency and it comprises five substances: matter, principle of motion, principle of rest, space and time? i. Pudgala-Matter is non-sentient concrete principle. It is either in the form of Paramanu (primary atoms) or Skandha (aggregates). These Skandhas are the lumps of Paramanus. The aggregatory process is going on because of their inherent qualities of Snigdha (cohesiveness) and Ruk sa (aridity). It possesses the four qualities as touch, taste, fragrance and colour'. They are grasped by sense organs. Matter also possesses origination, destruction and permanence. ii. Dharma-It is the principle of motion. It assists the movement of moving souls and matters as water helps the moving fish iii. Adharma-It is the principle of rest. It serves as the medium of rest as the shadow helps the resting of travellers, or like the earth to falling bodies. We see around us things moving, coming to rest, again moving and so on. There must be some media to help the moving and resting things. If there were no medium of motion, all things in the universe will be at a standstill. There will be universal cosmic paralysis. If there were no medium of rest, the things in the world will be scattered and flying about in the space and instead of cosmos there will be only chaos. Hence, the existence of these substances is postulated. iv. Akasa--Space gives accommodation to all the five substances?. It is eternal, pervasive and formless and it includes our world (Loka) and beyond (Aloka). v. Kala-Time is a substance characterised by Vartana (continuity), being an accessory cause of change. The moments of time are individually separate like jewels in a heap of jewels. of these matter alone is corporal or concrete (Murta) and the rest, including soul, are incorporal or non-concrete (Amurta), i.e., devoid of sense qualities and hence cannot be grasped by sense-perception. Time is devoid of Pradesa (space-points), while the remaining five substances have innumerable spacepoints, and therefore they, are called Astikayas (magnitudes). It is not maintained these six causes created the world at some particular time; but they are eternally existing, uncreated and with no beginning in time. As substances, they are eternal and unchanging ; but their modifications are passing through a flux of changes. Their mutual co-operation and inter-action 1. i 4c afu pour TURIEF TE Fra afar fout 11', T HER, II / 17 2. spara: FFPUT I', arataifaThu, v / 28 3. freueta 79: 1', acaraffa, v / 32 4. uaviara: tatar: 1', acaruffa, v / 23 5. 'TfOTETT YTHI g ay tware toyaM jaha macchANaM acautA Neya so Nei // ', dravyasaMgraha, 17 6. TETT garant TEATET ETT FETTU T UTU ETE II', FUTUE, 18 7. TA19ETTE: 1', Teateffata, v/18 8. 'kAlu maNijjahi dabva tahu~ vaTTaNalakSaNueu / te arfe fafque for though II', 924142, II / 21 AcAryaratna zrI dezabhUSaNa jI mahArAja abhinandana grantha
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________________ explain all that we imply by term 'creation'. There are always two causes in any event, namely, the Upudana (substantial cause) and the Nimitta (the instrumental cause). Viz., fire would be the instrumental cause determining water to boil, water being the substantial cause of the event 'boiling'. Each of the above named substances or realities is both substantial cause and instrumental cause, each act upon the others and is itself acted upon by the others. Each has the power of originating new states, destroying old ones and keeping permanent. The basic substance with its qualities is something that is permanent, while the modes or accidental characters appear and disappear. Viz., the soul is eternal with its inseparable character of consciousness; but at the same time it is subjected to accidental characters like pleasure and pain and super-imposed modes such as body etc., both of which changing constantly. This power is called 'Satta'. It is not a separate entity existing outside these six realities. It is a power inherent in them and inseparable from them. The modern physics also proved "Nothing new is created, nothing is destroyed, only modifications appear. Nothing comes out of nothing, nothing altogether goes out of existance; but only substances are modified." As Jainism is a dynamic realism, its doctrine is similar to the views held by the philosophers in the west, especially those belonging to the Realistic School. The Jaina conception of Drarya, Guna and Paryaya is aproximately similar to Spinoza's view of substance, attributes and modes, though he uses the term 'attribute' with a technical meaning, while in Jaina metaphysics it means qualities. Hegal had a conception of reality similar to the Jaina conception of Dravya. Satra and Dravya are one and the same as Hegel maintained. Thing-in-itself and experience are not absolutely distinct. Dravyas refer to facts of experience and Satta refers to existence or reality. The French philosopher Bergson also recognised substance as a permanent thing existing through change. The position is the same in Jainism and Samkhya so far as the initial start is concerned. One accepts the thesis and antethesis of Jiva and Ajiva and the other of Purusa and Prakrti. Thus both are dualistic of even pluralistic in view. But in Jaina system, Jiva is an active agent, while in Samkhya system Purusa is always Udasinu (indifferent) and is only a passive spectator. Jainism is a realistic religion with a philosophical background, while Samkhya remained till the end only a system of intellectual pursuit. Jainas and Mimansakas agree in holding that Atman is constituted of Caitanya and that there is a multitude of separate souls. But according to Jainism pleasure and pain come to be experienced because of Karmic association; while Mimarsakas simply say that they are changes in the Soul. In the condition of liberation, the soul, according to Mimarsakas, exists without cognition, but Jainism holds that the liberated soul is an embodiment of entire cognition (Ananta-Darsana), omniscience (Ananta-Jnana), infinite energy (Ananta-Virya) and the highest bliss (Ananta-Sukha). The Jaina Atman is a permanent individuality and will have to be distinguished from Buddhistic Vijnanas which rise and disappear, one set giving rise to a corresponding set. Unlike in the Nyaya system the soul in Jainism is not physically all-pervading but of the same size as that of the body which it comes to occupy. Jainism does not accept any idea like the individual souls being drawn back into some Higher soul Brahman or Isvara periodically. Soul's inherent qualities cognition (Darsana) and knowledge (Jnana) are similar to that of Kant's view of sensibility and understanding. The Jaina conception that Jivas are potentially divine and are found in different states of existence is echoed in the following lines of the Sufi Mystic : God sleeps in the minerals Dreams to consciousness in animals jaina darzana mImAMsA
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________________ To self-consciousness in man And to God consciousness in Man made perfect.' Matter in Jainism is concrete, gross, common place stuff amenable to multifarious modifications and realistic; while Samkhya Prakrti, though it involves much that is gross as well as subtle, stands for what is ordinary termed as undeveloped permordial matter, and it is an idealistic concept. Some Buddhist heretics known as Vatsiputiryas too, as Samtaraksita says, take Pudgala equal to Atman. That body, mind and speech are material corresponds to the Samkhya view according to which they are all evolved from Prakrti. The four kinds of Ahankaras : Vaikarika, Taijasa, Bhutadi and Karmatman remind us of the four bodies in Jainism; Aharaka, Vaikriyika, Taijasika and Karmana. In explaining the phenomenon of Samsara, the Karmic matter plays the same part in Jainism as Maya or Avidya in the Vedanta system. The Karma doctrine, as an aspect of Jaina notion of matter, is complex and elaborated subject by itself. The Jainas and Vaisesikas agree in holding that an atom is beyond sense-perception. According to Nyaya-Vaisesika, it is the will of God, the creating agency, that produces motion in the atom; and so they combine Dvyanukas, Tryanukas and so forth, till masses of earth, water, fire and air (Pethivi, Ap, Teja and Vayu), the four elements are produced. The Nyaya-Vaisesika ideas and hair-splitting discussions of Dvyanukas and Tryanukas have no place in Jaina exposition. The Jaina Paramanu is similar to the atoms recognised by Lencippus and Democritus in its basic conception that it is an eternal and indivisible minute particle or matter, that it is beyond sense-perception, that it is made of the same substance and that there are no four classes of atoms corresponding to elements; but the varying size and form of atoms with corresponding sourness etc., accepted by them is not possible in Jainism. As in Jainism, Dharma and Adhurma are never used as the medium of motion and rest anywhere else. The Samkhya idea that Dharma leads upwards and Adharma downwards is merely the ethico-religious idea quite usual in Gita and other works. In Jainism, they are non-corporal and homogeneous-whole substances. Dr. Hermann Jacobi holds this as mark of antiquity of Jainism. The function of Adharma Dravya corresponds to Newton's theory of gravitation. Like the Jainas, the European mathematicians Cantor, Peano and Frege have accepted the reality of Space and Time. Jainism and Nyaya-Vaisesika agree in holding Akasa as all pervading and eternal, but Jainism does not accept that sound is a quality of Akasa; but it is produced only when molecules strike against one another. This view is now moved by the modern science also. The realistic philosopher Bertrand Russell also says that though Time is the existent substance; still it is not merely experienced. Jainism holds that Time is unilateral and in mathematical language it is called monodimentional. Considering the above discussion, I now conclude my article in H. Warren's words: "The power which creates and destroys things is not extra-cosmic outside the above named six realities, the power is inherent in the things themselves, and is fouud in both the intelligent and in the non-intelligent realities. This power is not called God in Jainism. That is the Jaina position." AcAryaratna zrI dezabhUSaNa jI mahArAja abhinandana grantha