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BOOK V
1. The rising and the setting of the sun in particular directions is only relative to our vision. The reality is that the sun is all the time on this earth, but when our vision is obstructed, we do not see the sun, and then we say, 'the sun has set. But just at that time when we do not see the sun, people in some other parts of this earth whose obstruction has been removed see the sun, and they say, 'the sun has risen'. Thus the rising and the setting of the sun are relative to our vision depending on whether the vision is obstucted or not. As it has been said,
jaha jaha samaye samaye purao saṁcarai bhakkharo gayane taha taha io vi niyama jāyai rayaņi ja bhāvattho evaṁ ca sai narânań udayatthamaņāiṁ honti aniyayāim sayadesabhee kassai kinci vavadissai niyamā
[As the sun moves forward in the sky, the sky in the rear becomes dark. So the rising and the setting of the sun depend on the movement of the sun. The rising and the setting of the sun are not uniform phenomena in relation to man, but differ according to his geographical location.]
The Sütra establishes that the sun moves in all directions in the sky. This rejects the common-sense view. crdinarily held that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If still we observe the night and the day, it is because of the fact that the rays of the sun reach upto a certain distance only, and the region beyond that distance remains dark.
In the Jaina view, there are two suns over the Jambū-dvīpa because of which there is simultaneous day in the north and the south on one side of it and simultaneous night in the north and the south on the other side of it, and vice versa. Had there been only one sun, it would have served only half of one side at a time, say, the north on this side, and then the other
