Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

SR No.: 006924
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 252
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 19

INTRODUCTION
xvii
exclusion of kāla from the category of astikāya because it has neither pradeśas nor parts. A material atom (paramānu) is also conceived as possessed of parts, inasmuch as it has taste, smell, colour, and touch which are conceived as its parts in the scriptural tradition; a material atom has indeed no physical parts (dravyāvayava), but it has indeed logically intelligible parts (bhāvāvayava).
In this connection it is necessary to explain the nature of a pradeśa with reference to the substances. The jiva, dharma, adharma and lokākāśa (cosmic space) have each an equal number of pradeśas which are numerically innumerable. Now the problem is-how can a jīva which has different magnitudes co-extensive with the body that it might happen to occupy have the same number of pradeśas as that in the dharmästi. kāya or adharmästikāya that spread over the whole of the cosmic space? The Jaina conception of pradeśa explains the problem. A pradeśa has dimensions, and a standard pradeśa is the pradeśa of dharmästikāya, adharmāstikāya or ākāśāstikāya. Thus the cosmic ākāśa is conceived as having an innumerable number of pradeśas. In other words, the dimension of a standard pradeśa is the volume of the cosmic ākāśa divided by an innumerable number. This is about the standard pradeśa. The pradeśa of the soul (which, according to Jainism, has demensions) is, however subject to contraction and expansion. The soul is neither atomic nor ubiquitous in size according to Jainism. A pradeśa of a soul in its maximum expansion is coextensive with the standard pradeśa of dharmāstikāya, adharmāstikāya and ākāśa. The dimensions of the soul, however, vary in accordance with the dimensions of the body it might happen to occupy, but the number of its pradeśas remains fixed, being innumerable in number, there being only contraction and expansion of the pradeśas according to necessity.
The upshot is that a pradeśa of Jaina philosophers is not like the Euclidean point that has no dimension. It is perhaps comparable to the
1 Ibid., p. 316: kāyagrahaņam pradeśāvayava-bahutvärtham addhāsamayaprati
şedhārtham ca. 2 Ibid., pp. 318-9 : nanu caiko'pi parmānuh pudgaladra vyam eva. sa katham
bahvavayavo bhavet? kimatra pratipādyam ? nanu prasiddham evedam eka-rasagandha-varno dvisparsas cīņūr bhavati, bhāvāvayavaih sävayavo dravyāvaya: vair niravayava iti. agamaś ca : "kaivihe nam bhamte bhāvaparamāņū pannatte ? Goyamā cauvvibe bhāvaparamāņā paņpatte...tam jahä-vannamamte, rasamaste,
gamdhamamte phāsamamte iti”. 3 TSū, V. 16: pradeśa-samhära-visargābhyām pradipavat,