Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

SR No.: 001619
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Religion, & Epistemology
File Size: 8 MB

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Reals in the faina Metaphysics
organs excited by the stimuli. But both the stimuli and the receiving organs are matter or modes of matter. It is thus matter in which we are to find out the grounds for our different sensations.
QUESTION IS METAPHYSICAL
This, however, does not mean that the atoms or ultimate stuffs of matter must be invested with the explicit characteristics of gross material substances. In other words, the metaphysical necessity of supposing matter to be the grounds of our varied sensations does not imply that the atoms themselves are to be of actual colours, tastes, or smells. It means that for the purposes of our sensations, it is not enough, that there be material atoms endowed with simple inertia, and certain powers of attraction and repulsion but that they should be the ultimate grounds of our varied sensations. The question is not one for the physical sciences which are perfectly justified in demonstrating how or under what conditions e.g. in what modes of matter or their functionings the different sensations arise. It is metaphysical, in as much as it enquires what should be the nature of matter in order that it may be the grounds of our sensations.
In our consideration of the nature of elements, we saw that the Indian standpoint was metaphysical. The attribution of Rūpa and Sparsa, for instance, to the element, Tejas, did not mean that this ultimate element or the elemental atoms were actually hot and brilliant substances. There we referred to the view of Vātsāyana that there may be Tejas in which - Rūpa and Sparsa were not explicit (377cHTEYEYOTTSF987:). It appears that when Indian philosophers endowed the elements and the elemental atoms with attributes, found in gross sensuous matters, all that they meant was that it is in the elemental matter that we are to find the grounds of our different sensations.
SENSE ATTRIBUTES AND THE MATERIAL ELEMENTS
The sense-attributes of Rūpa etc. attributed to the pri