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Bhagavai 6:10:171-173
-: 475
no tinatthe samatthe, se teṇattheṇam goyama! evam vuccai-no cakkiyä kei suham vå jäva uvadamsettae.
For what reason is it so?
Gautama! this continent of Jambudvipa which is situated at the centre of all the continents and oceans is said to be 100000 yojanas in diameter and 316227 yojanas and 3 kosas and 128 dhanusas and a little more than 13, angulas in perimeter.
Now a god of great fortune...... up to great power, taking a perfume casket, full of cosmetic (powder), opens it and having opened (spreads the powder all over), while circumambulating 21 times the entire continent of Jambudvipa and returning back in as short a time as is taken by three times. snapping the thumb against the finger, pointing in a cursory way to the continent of Jambudvipa. Now, O Gautama! as a result; is not the entire continent of Jambudvipa touched by those fragrant particles? "Yes, they are touched."
Gautama! can anybody make tangible even those fragrant particles by enlarging them to the size of the stone of the berry, a grain of motha, a round gram, a black gram, a green gram, a louse and an egg of a louse? "Not, it is not possible (O Lord!)."
"It is for this reason, Gautama! that it has been said that nobody can make tangible the pleasure or pain ...... up to egg of a louse. (Same as in 6.172)."
Bhāṣya
1. Sutras 171-173
Pleasure and pain are the sensations, which can not be made tangible like the material clusters, by changing their size to any dimension whatsoever.
In Rajagṛha, some heretical philosophers were propounding the doctrine that the pleasure and pain of all the inhabitants of Rajagṛha could not be made tangible like the stone of a berry etc.. These heretics were probably materialists and their doctrine probably implied that the sensations of a larger number of souls could be made as tangible as the material objects like the stone of a berry etc., which were of smaller size but still were tangible.
In reply to Gautama's query about this heretical doctrine, Lord Mahāvīra said "It is not the question of all inhabitants of Rajagrha alone; but even the pleasure and pain of all the living beings in the entire cosmos are not capable of being made tangible by reducing them to the smallest possible entity. The reason is that sensations are possible only in souls, which are absolutely different from material entity. The material entity (even very small size) can be made tangible to some extent, but knowledge, sensation and experience being the characteristics of non-corporeal soul can not be made objectively tangible by any means whatsoever.
The physiological manifestations of the sensations of pleasure and pain could be objectively measured through psychological phenomena, perception, inference
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