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

Page 53

38
Reals in the Jaiña Metaphysics
THE JAINA AND THE NyĀYA-VAIŚEȘIKA VIEWS ABOUT THE NON-PSYCHICAL REALS
It will be seen that Material elements, called Bhūta's by the Nyāya school and Pudgala by the Jaina are unconscious Reals, admitted by both the schools. Similarly, Kāla or condition of change is another such Real, acknowledged by both the schools. Besides, both the schools admit that the conscious Reals are infinite in number. But while agreeing so far, the two schools of philosophers, the Nyāya-Vaiseșika and the Jaina, have remarkable differences. One such difference is this, that while the former school mentions five kinds of elemental Matter-stuff, viz. Pșthvī, Ap, Tejas, Vāyu and Ākāśa, the latter would affirm that the ultimate Matter-stuff viz. the Pudgala, is of one kind only. While according to the Naiyāyikas, Ākāśa is the subtlest kind of material element, it is according to the Jainas no matter at all but a different kind of unconscious Real. We shall see that the Jainas mean Space by Ākāśa. Dharma and Adharma, again, are two unconscious Reals, according to the Jainas, signifying conditions of Motion and Rest respectively. These two Reals have no corresponding counterparts in the Nyāya-Vaiseșika, indeed in any other system of philosophy at all. On the other hand, Dik or point of direction is a Real in the Vaiseșika metaphysics. Dik according to it is an unconscious Real which determines the directions of things. A is to the East of B, B is to the South of C and so on; such a determination of the location of things is made possible by the reality of the substance, called Dik by the Vaišeșika's. Dik is real, eternal, all-pervasive and one. The ten directions of it viz. East, North-East, North, North-West, West, South-West, South, South-East, Up and Down are due to one Dik being determined by different positions of the Sun in the sky at different times. The Jainas point out that the conception of Dik as a Real is unnecessary. The points of direction are better explained by Ākāśa or space. Space is a Real substance admitted by the Jainas who maintain that our determination of the East is due to a particular point of Space (Ākāśa-pradeśa