Jaina Gazette 1927

SR No.: 034889
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J L Jaini, Ajitprasad
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1927
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 71

36
THE JAINA GAZETTE
the real existence is stronger in the case of Time. We come across moments, hours, days etc, in our actual observation : these, as will be shown hereafter, are but effects or limitations which point to the reality of a principle which we call Kala. It is thus that observation confirms our belief in the reality of Time. Lastly, it should be noted that along with our observation of a modification in a substance, there is involved this observation that this modification occurs at such and such a time. How can this latter fact of observation be explained unless you admit the reality of Time as the accompanying condition of the modification of a substance? The modification in a substance which is admittedly due to the nature of the substance itself can generate no more than an idea of modification ; and if in our idea of modification. there is involved an idea of a temporal order, this necessitates the real existence of Time as its cause or for the matter of that, as the accompanying condition of the modification in a substance,
The opponents of the above Jaina theory of Time contend that Time is no reality. They point out that in the Jaina Agama
Samaya' (a duration or measure of Time) is described as the Time taken by an atom in crossing over a Pradesa of Akasa and that the same Agama elsewhere talks of the crossing of the whole universe in the course of one Samaya. What does this show ? This shows that Time is no reality : it is more or less a convention. The Jaina commentator, Brahma-deva sels aside this contention by pointing out that the above different statements in the Agama refer to the differences in speed and do not affect the reality of Time. “Devadatta by moving slowly,' says he "traverses a distance of 100 yojanas in one hundred days; he may, however acquire superhuman powers and swiftly pass over the same distance in one day. Time is real notwithstanding the different results effected by differences in speed.
The next objection is that there need not be supposed any Real Time to explain motion and change in things. Dharma which is admitted by the Jainas as a real substance, is what
accounts for motion ; why should Kala be admitted over and Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat