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Lord Sumatinātha
The reality of substances as expounded by you considers a thing as one or many depending on the point of view*. That the substance (dravya) is one and its qualities (guņa) are many** is the real point of view; it is a delusion to consider any of the two as a metaphorical expression since the one (dravya) cannot exist without the other (guņa) and if both are absent, the identity of the object is lost and it becomes a meaningless abstraction.
*For instance, a person is said to be a father when he is
considered in relation to his son and a son when considered in relation to his father. Therefore the question as to how can the same man be father as well as son would entirely be meaningless in light of the logical theory of predication.
**dravya and guņa are inseparable and yet the substance is
not the same as its attributes nor the attributes same as the substance, though the substance manifests its nature through the attributes. Substance without attributes and attributes dissociated from the underlying substance would all be meaningless abstractions. Hence in the world of reality there can be no existence of either dravya or guņa independent of each other.
सतः कथञ्चित्तदसत्त्वशक्तिः खे नास्ति पुष्पं तरुषु प्रसिद्धम् । सर्वस्वभावच्युतमप्रमाणं स्ववाग्विरुद्धं तव दृष्टितोऽन्यत् ॥
(5-3-23)
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