Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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theory without trouble that one up to ananta atoms can interpenetrate in one prade'sa. And the same theory became the basis of karmic bondage with a soul. The Jaina theory of atomic combination had thus to take a peculiar direction in order to adjust itself to the Jaina position of parinamavada, precisely speaking, to yield itself to defend the basic Jaina position that the soul is coextensive with the size of its body at any stage of its transformation.
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Thus evolved the Jainas' peculiar theory of prade'sas. It then immediately gave rise to the standpoint of kşetra or space as distinguished from the standpoint of drauya or substance, which is considered on the basis of the number of atoms existing in a thing. The number of atoms existing in a composite equals the number of its prade's as, therefore, the Jainas soon began to express the substance of a composite by the number of its prade'sas, as we have already noted. However, a composite with asankhyata prade'sas, for instance, does not express its actual dimension, whether it is occupying (avagaha) one prade'sa or many prade'sas, for it primarily expresses the standpoint of substance. So, in order to distinguish a composite with so many atoms occupying one prade's a (which is invisible) from that occupying more than one prade'sa (which is visible), the Jaina theoreticians came to formulate the concepts of a subtle composite (suksma-parinata-skandha) and a gross composite (badara-parinataskandha). That these standpoints of dravya and prade'sa were posited first is testified by the fact that the Prajnapanā very frequently employs the standpoints of dravya, prade'sa and dravya-prade'sa. The standpoints of kala and bhava must have been added to them shortly after, because it is quite logical and natural to posit how long atom-composites subsist and what their actual properties are, inasmuch as jivas are always investigated as to their length of life span and what their specific characteristics in this and that class of beings are.
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Thus in the fourth-fifth stages, the Jainas came to establish their method of investigating a problem by this basic set of four standpoints. And syadvada is inevitably latent in this very method of approach. (This theory of sya dva da could have also arisen inevitably in the thought pattern of the Jainas, who are accustomed to discussing a problem by indiscriminatingly applying the same anuyogadvara to jiva and ajiva alike.) The Jainas here for the first time arrived at the stage of possessing their own method of approach, which is epochmaking in their history of theorization.
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Not only did this method of these standpoints dominate the thought pattern of the Jainas for long time, but it soon had to give rise to the famous naya dialectics called dravya stika and paryayastika in the post-canonical period, and their forerunners already appear in the Bhagavati. Avyavacchitti-vyavacchitti nayas, which occur in VI.3.279, were derived precisely from the standpoints of dravya-bhava in VII.2.273, which are made exactly in parallel in explaining the eternality or otherwise of jiva. Likewise, X VI.6.629 explains that treacle