Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

SR No.: 522601
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 414
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin, & India
File Size: 9 MB

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. I
past nor future but exists only for present and irrevocably dies in the next moment without any chance of resurrection. The test of reality is found in practical efficiency which boils down to causal activity. A permanent is only a figment of the imagination as it is not found to exercise permanent causal efficiency. The seed in the granary does not produce sprout but one planted in the irrigated soil does it. What is the explanation? If the permanent possesses a permanent capacity, it should produce a series of effects. The seed in the granary does not produce sprout because it does not possess the capacity for it. Possession of capacity is bound to end in the production of an effect. Power kept in abeyance is only a hoax. Why should the seed remain idle? If it is contended that the permanent produces an effect only when it is reinforced by auxiliary factors, the question crops up, what do these auxiliaries contribute to the permanent ? The permanent may wait for the auxiliaries if they are of service. A thing which does not confer any benefit, that is to say, an excess on the supposed permanent, it will not be wanted. Only that is wanted which produces a benefit, that is, gives an advantage which the beneficiary lacks. Suppose that the auxiliaries, e. g. soil, irrigation, free air, and light of the sun vest the seed with an additional efficacy, and so long as these auxiliaries are not available the seed will not sprout. But what will be the relation of the benefit concerned with the seed as the supposed recipient of benefit. Unless the benefit becomes identified with the seed it will not be of any avail. If the benefit remains apart and aloof from the seed as it is from other things, it will be useless. But if the benefit, say relaxation of the seed etc., be identified with the seed, the latter will be a momentary event like the benefit produced. So we must conclude that not the past enduring seed but the seed identified with the benefit conferred by auxiliaries produces the sprout. The sproutproducing seed then is a different entity from the past seed. In other words, it is the momentary seed which produces the sprout. It differs materially from the past bacause it successfully exercises its causal power, whereas the past seed remained absolutely ineffective so far as the sprout is concerned. It is causal efficiency which is the criterion of reality. A fiction has no causal efficiency. The sky-flower gives no scent. Causal efficiency is found in the present momentary entity. The jar that draws water is different from the empty jar in spite of their external physical likeness. The active jar has undergone a constitutional change which makes it capable of drawing water. But unthinking people are deceived by superficial appearance of similarity and think that the entity is permanent with deferred causality. So all that exist must be momentary. The approach is characterized by the