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118
COSMOLOGY : OLD AND NEW aeons. But the process is slowly and inexorably going on; and it is this increase of muddle on the side of us, this decrease on the other, which we feel as a difference between past and future : this growing disorder which we call the passing' of
time" 264
It is this 'muddling' has been connoted by that word 'pariņāma' (modifications) in the main sutra and more clearly expressed in gatha 750 of Gommajasăra quoted on page 113.
SUTRA 23. स्पर्शरसगन्धवर्णवन्तः पुद्गलाः ॥२३॥ SPARśA-RASA-GANDHA-VARŅAVANTAH
PUDGALĀH [23] (Pudgala or matter has four chief characteristics associated with it, viz., touch, taste, smell and colour.) In a standard svetambara work we read as follows :
पोग्गलत्थिकाए पंचवण्णे दुगंधे पंचरसे अट्ठफासे पण्णत्ते। 265 (Pudgala is characterized by five kinds of colour, five kinds of taste, two forms of smell and eight kinds of touch.)
Acārya Sakalakirti expresses the same view in Vardhamana purāna as :
वर्णगन्धरसस्पर्शमयाश्चानन्तपुद्गलाः। Or in Pañcastikāya-sára :
वण्णरसगंधफासा परमाणपरूविदा विसेसा हि।
दव्वादो य अणण्णा अण्णत्तपगासगा होति ।। 26 Eight kinds of touch have been described as :
मृदुकठिनगुरुलघुशीतोष्णस्निग्धरूक्षस्पर्शभेदाः । 7 Soft, hard, heavy, light, cold, hot, smooth and rough.
264. An Outline For Boys and Girls and Their Parents. p. 343. 265. Vyakhya prajnapti, 12.5.116. 266. Paricastikaya-sara, 57. 267. Tarvarı ha-rajavartika, on sutra 5.23.