Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

SR No.: 006930
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 224
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 57

two everlasting, un-created, co-existing, but independent categories of Jīva and Ajīva. The Ajīva is further classified into Pudgala (matter), Dharma (principle of motion), Adharma (principle of rest), Ākāśa (space) and Kāla (time). Hence reality is dualistic as well as pluralistic. But, according to the Jaina, plurality, considered from the point of view of one existence, entails unity also. According to Kundakunda, in spite of the unique characteristics possessed by the different substances, existence has been regarded as an all-comprising characteristic of reality which ends all distinctions.34 Samantabhadra also endorses this view by affirming that in view of the conception of one universal existence all are one, but from the point of view of substances distinctions arise.35 In his Saptabhangītarangiņi Vimaladāsa concludes that both the postulation of existential identity and the articulation of differences from the stand-point of different substances are logically necessary and justifiable.36 Thus Jainism gives credence to the recognition of existential oneness but not exclusively, since it is always bound up with plurality. This is quite consistent with the Anekāntātmaka view of reality propounded by the Jaina philosopher. Hence unity, duality, and plurality-all are inseparably and inevitably involved in the structure of reality. This is the Anekāntic view of reality.
(ii) Knowledge of Anekāntic reality (Pramāṇa and Naya)
According to Jainism reality or substance is cognised by Pramāṇa and Naya. 37 Pramāņa refers to the grasping of reality in its wholeness, while Naya points to an aspect of infinitely-phased reality illumined by Pramāņa, thus the latter takes into consideration only a fragment of the totality. 38 A substance embellishes itself with apparent antagonisms. The emphasis on the one and the cancellation of the other would
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays