Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge

SR No.: 001608
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Y J Padmarajiah
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal
Publication Year: 1963
Total Pages: 444
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Epistemology, & Anekantvad
File Size: 23 MB

Page 128

CHAPTER IV
109
number of which is said to be infinite (te anantāḥ). Every simple or ultimate entity (nityadravya) is believed to have a viseșa rooted in it. It is by virtue of the višeșa thus rooted in it that an entity can be differentiated from all other entities. This is so not merely in the case of ultimate entities which are otherwise indistinguishable from one another, e.g., one atom (aņu) from another, one liberated soul (muktātma) from another or one manas from another”, but also among all other entities in the universe.
If višeșas are granted to be the differentiating elements
5.
See Jinavardhanasūri's Comm. quoted in SP, p. 5 (notes). vināśarambharahiteşul nityadravyesu anvākāśakāladigätmamanassu pratidravyam ekaikaśo vartamānah....../ PB, p. 691. See also SP, p. 5 (for the Comm. quoted) and TRD, p. 277. Hence višeşas are characterised as vyavrttibuddhihetevah. PB, p. 691. anyanimittasambhavāt / Ibid. nityesu tulyakştigunakriyeşu paramānusu muktātmamanassu etc. Ibid. The direct means of differentiation among the ultimate entities are of course višeşas themselves. The proximate means of differentiation among the non-ultimate or composite bodies are, however, the distinctions among the component parts constituting the bodies (avayavabhedadavayavibhedah). But, in the ultimate analysis, even these distinctions among the component parts are based on the indivisible atoms from which the parts are formed. Hence all differentiations are based, directly or indirectly, on the višeşas. Cf. "Thus a jar is distinguished from a piece of cloth; because the component parts of the first are distinct from those of the latter; and so on we may argue, until at last we arrive at the ultimate constituents of matter viz., atoms, which are indivisible. The same reasoning cannot be applied to distinguish one atom from another, since an atom has no further component parts." SP, p. 5 (notes). See also Saptapadārthi (A. M. Bhattacharya and N.C. B. Bhattacharya's edn.) p. XXXVIII f., f.n. 63.