Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 563

398
Translation of
[II, 37
37. Of this physical world constituted of matter and souls, there take place transformations consisting of origination, permanence and destruction collectively or individually.
38. The characteristics by which the sentient and non-sentient substances are recognised are known as the special qualities called mūrta and amūrta, concrete and non-concrete.
39. The qualities which are perceived by senses, which characterise the material substances and which are manifold are mārta or concrete qualities; the qualities of non-concrete substances are to be known as amūrta or non-concrete.
40. Colour, taste, smell and touch are found in matter from the finer molecule to the gross earth; and sound is material and of various kinds.
41-42. The peculiar property of Ākāsa is to give room; of the Dharma-substance, to be a cause of movement; of Adharma-, to be a cause of stationariness; of Kāla, to mark the continuity; of soul, the manifestation of consciousness: these are to be known, in short, the peculiar characteristics of non-concrete substances.3.
43. The souls, material bodies, principles of motion and rest, and space: all these possess innumerable space-points; but time has no space-points. 4
*2. These five substances, leaving aside the time, are called astikā yas or magnitudes: the word kaya signifies the collection of space-points."
1. Compare P. 99. 2. TS. V, 5, 23-24.
3. According to Jainism space or ākāśa is a substance, a reality. We can think of a beginning and an end in connection with things limited, but we cannot posit these for nature as a whole. Space extends infinitely, so its extension is infinite. Besides extension there is another characteristic of space, namely, to give room or the capacity to contain. The second is not an independent characteristic, because it needs certain other things for which the room is to be given. The six substances including space as well are there in space to a certain extent, and that much extent is called lokākāśa, the physical space; and the rest, where there is nothing but mere space, is called alokākāśa, super-physical or non-physical space. The experience of this empty space is possible for the omniscient, since our ordinary experience is always relative. And since omniscience is capable of comprehending even empty space, there is no propriety of calling empty space as a mere theoretical abstraction: thus the Jaina authors accept the possibility of empty space. On gāthās 41-42 see P. 23-24, 85-86, 90 etc; TS. V, 17-18, 22.
4. TS. V, 8-9. 5. On astikāya see P. 5.