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 93

78
Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics of the hearer being near to or distant from it or of the air blowing alongside or against it and so on'.
Sound is not a formless attribute but an actual mode of matter, having form. An attribute of a substance does not undergo modifications; only a substance can be modified; so, if Sound is found to be modified, it must be held to be a corporeal mode of matter. Now, instances of modification of Sound are very frequent. The chirping of birds is drowned in the loud sounding of a clarion or in the growls of an elephant or a lion. Sound vibrations coming in contact with certain metals are modified into causes of other Sounds. Sounds entering caves are retarded and come back as echoes. All these show that Sounds are variously modified and as it is only a substance and not an attribute that can be modified, Sound must be held to be a mode of matter. Ratnaprabha next points out that odorous particles also are found to pass through very dense objects e.g. closed doors, etc., but these very small particles are particles of matter, all the same. Similarly the fact that Sound can pass through dense matters does not necessarily prove that it is an attribute; it shows that its substráta are very minute particles of matter. It should be observed at the same time that neither Smell nor Sound is found to pass through absolutely closed and dense matters; this shows that Sound is a mode of matter like smelling particles. As regards the Nyāya contention that Sound is an attribute and not a mode of matter on the ground that nothing in connection with it is perceived either before or after it is heard,-ihe Jaina's point out that in the case of a flash of lightning also, nothing before or after it, is perceived, though all the same it is a mode of matter.
* The author of Rāja-Vārtika in commenting on :förtaifa TTTET AT: T ECHFITTOUHI
means this by sayingयथा तारकादयो भास्कर प्रभाभिवान्मूर्तिमन्तः, तथा सिंहगजमेर्यादिशब्बबुहद्भि शकुनिरुतादयोभिभूयन्ते। तथा कांस्यादिषु पतिता ध्वन्यन्तरारम्मे हेतवो भवन्ति। गिरिगहवरादिषु च प्रतिहताः प्रतिश्रुत भावमास्कन्दन्ति ।