________________
THE JAINA GAZETTE
VOL. XXIII.
No. 2. 3
MADRAS FEBRUARY 1927.
S WHOLE
No. 260.
THE THEORY OF TIME IN
JAINA PHILOSOPHY.
BY
Harisatya Bhattacharyya, M.A., B.L. V ALA or Time is ordinarily described as the principle of
1 Change. Accordingly the systems of philosophy which deny the real existence of the world cannot be expected to admit the reality of Time. The Vedanta, for instance, maintains that Kala is no reality. “If you maintain," says Anandajnana, "that Time is the distinctive cause of our idea (of succession etc.) your position is not tenable because consciousness which is all-pervasive can establish such relationships ; so that from the order or sequence of effects i.e., phenomena, you are not justified in inferring the real existence of Time. (Tarka-Samgraha)." This Vedantic disquisition about Kala seems to have foreshadowed the celebrated theory of Kant that Time is only an intuition of the mind and has no reality outside it. The philosophers of the Sankhya school also do not admit the reality of Kala. To them, the Purusha and the Prakriti form the dual realities and Kala is the conjunction (Sangati) of the two. In plain language, the theory means that the Purusha or Soul views all things and phenomena in Time i.e., temporal order when it falsely finds itself Joined with the Prakriti. Clearly, this Sankhya theory denies the
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