________________
THE THEORY OF TIME IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY 35
days which intervene between his old age and his youth) give rise to the said idea of succession. Accordingly, something real, called Kala or Time-which is related both to the man under observation and the motions of the sun-must be admitted as the cause of our ideas of succession etc. This Time is a real substance and is eternal. We talk of moments, hours, days, months and years, But this does not show that Time is essentially many in number. In these varied sub-divisions of Time, one and the same essential reality is observed. These sub-divisions are the various modifications of the same substance, Time. Phenomena like the motions of the sun (which determine the measures of Time) present one and the same Time in various limitations, called moments, days, years Hence there is but one Time. That Time is a real cause is apparent from the fact that while we do not talk of eternal substances like Atoms etc., as being generated, we speak of temporary things e.g. pitchers, as being produced, successively or simultaneously or at day-time and so on. In the generation of the phenomena which have a beginning. Time is a real cause or condition. Thus the thinkers of the Vaiseshika school conclude that Time is (1) a real substance, (2) is eternal, (3) is one, (4) is a real factor in the generation of non-eternal phenomena.
etc.
In the Jaina philosophy, Kala is as much a real substance as the five other viz, Jiva, Dharma, Adharma, Pudgala and Akasa. It is described as the accompanying cause or condition (SahakariKarana) or Asamavayi-Karana, as the Vaiseshikas call it, of the modification of substances. Substances are modified because of their own nature; yet, Time is a real factor in the happening of their modifications. You cannot say that as the modifications of substances are due to their own nature, cne need not admit the real existence of Time, as their accompanying cause. Substances move, come to rest and have spatial existence, of and by themselves; yet, the Jaina Scripture posits the reality of Dharma, Adharma and Akasa, as the accompanying conditions of the motion, the rest and the spatial existence of substances. Similarly Time should be admitted as the accompanying condition of the modifications of substances. Indeed, the necessity of admitting Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com