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P. 17, 11. 22-25)
NOTES
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अप्रच्युतानुत्पन्नस्थिरैकस्वभावं नित्यम्. They may be roughly attributed to the adherents of (1) Jaina, (2) Sānkhya & Vedānta, (3) Naiyāyika and (4) Vais'egika schools respectively.
According to the Vais'ssikas only those things which are absolutely changéless are nity, and such a type of nityatva (changelessness ) is found in äkās'a, parumänu etc. This may remind one of the definition of * rigidity' in Statics.
For Patañjali's view about nityatvu, ono can say from the following lines of his Mahābhāsyo on 1, 1, 1 (Kielhorn's edn., Vol. I, p. 7) that he is more inclinod towards purināmi-nvityatvu than kutastha-nityotvo:
__ "द्रव्यं हि नित्यमाकृतिरनित्या "आकृतिरन्या चान्या च भवति । द्रव्यं पुनस्तदेव....."अथवा नेदमेव नित्सलक्षणं ध्रुवं कूटस्थमविचाल्यनपायोपजनविकार्यनुत्पत्त्यवृद्धयव्यययोगि यत् तन्नित्यमिति । तदपि नित्य यसिंस्तत्त्वं न विहन्यते । किं पुनस्तत्त्वम् ? । तद्रावस्तत्त्वम् । आकृतावपि तत्त्वं न बिहन्यते।"
The Vedāntins believe two kinds of nityatvo: (i) relative and (ü) absolutive. The formor is what they call anvayitva or anvitatva or sthiratva, and it is such as belongs to kcirana in all its changes (e. g. clay in a jar, the dissolution of a jar etc.). Further, it is based on the ground of pratyabhijñca (recognition ), the ground admitted by the Jainas. The latter is such as belongs to brahmin or ātman and to none else.
According to the Jainas absolute nityatva is a pure fiction. Nityafuas which is possible is only relative. It is one which is in the midst of change. The Vedāntins thus are at one with the Jainas in so far as they trace sthiratva or anvitatva in the midst of change. But as they do not attach much valuo to this relative wityatva and lay moro emphasis on the absolute nityatvu than on the other, they may be classed with the Vais'eşikas who define nityd as "ayaraftakrua"4
I may nute en puissant the riddle of permanence and change as solved by Greek philosophers and noted by Frank Thilly as under :- ; : "He is doeply impressed with the fact of change in the world, and concludes that chango constitutes the very life of the universe, that nothing is really permanent, that permanenco is an illusion, that thoug! things may appear to remain stable, they are actually in an endless process of becoming, in a constant stato of flux. Tho Eleaticså take the opposite view and deny the very possibility of change or becoming. To them it is unthinkablo that reality should change, that a thing should really and truly become something else. And so they declared that change is illusory, more sense, appearance and that being is permanent and real."- A History of Philosophy (pp. 22-23)
1 Cl. " tapet fart"-TS (V, 40) 2-4 Seo "Notes" (pp. 43-44) to SM,
5 He means Heraclitus (535 B.C.475 B. C.). 6 This school takes its name from the town of Elea, in southern Italy,
the home of its real founder Parmenidos who was born in about 510 B. C.
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