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 71

Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
cosmic principles extending throughout the Lokākāśa or "filled space". They are non-existent in the Aloka or "the void space beyond". It is not to be supposed that Dharma is "something more, it is the cause (or condition) of the system of movements, the fact of an order in the movements of Jiva and Pudgala." According to the Jaina philosophy, the Jiva and the Pudgala move of and by themselves and the Principle of Dharma is strictly passive and as such, cannot account for the order in the universe. Similarly, Adharma also is a passive principle. The Jiva and the Pudgala stop or come to rest, of and by themselves. If there is any systematised or ordered Rest in the universe, its cause is to be sought for, not in the Principle of Adharma but in the essential nature of the Jiva and the Pudgala themselves. It thus appears that neither Dharma nor Adharma brings about the order that is found in the universe. Can we, however, treat one of them as "logically prior" to the other? Can we suppose that one principle tends to counteract the effect of the other and thereby the order in the universe is brought about as the resultant? Are Dharma and Adharma similar to the principles of Love and Hate, to the principle "guaranteeing motion within limits" and the principle of "Gravitation" respectively, or to the "electromagnetic influences", positive and negative, like that inherent in the constitution of an Atom? We are afraid they are not to be conceived thus. Dharma and Adharma are strictly inactive substances and we cannot attribute to them any sort of dynamic energising, just as we cannot think of them as "centripetal and centrifugal forces".
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DR. A. CHAKRAVERTY'S VIEW ABOUT ADHARMA
We have ventured to express in the foregoing paragraph, our categorical disagreement not only with the view of Dr. Seal, which has already been discussed in the section entitled 'Motion', but also with the theory of Professor A. Chakraverty. "The very fact", says Professor Chakraverty, "that the structure of the world is permanent, that the world is a cosmos and not a chaos implies the existence