________________
103
it is important to recall the significance of the word, “Syat”. In other words, we must not forget that when a positive character is there in an object, it is so, only in some respect. A pitcher, for instance, was found to be existent only in respect of its own earthen substanoe, in its own time of summer, its own mode of redcolour and its own place of Pataliputra. It was non-existent as an object, made of gold ( other object's substance ), of the time of winter (other object's time ), of a blue colour (other object's mode ) and of Saurashtra ( other object's place ). Only under these two sets of conditions, the pitcher can be said to be both existent and non-existent and this is what is implied in the fourth Bhanga. The fourth mode of predication does not signify that an object is positive in those very respects, in which it is negative or that it is negative in those very respects in which it is positive. It does not mean, for instance, that the pitcher in our example, is both existent and non-existent, as an earthen pot that it is both existent and non-existent in summer, that it is both existent and non-existent, as a thing of red colour and that it is both existent and non-existent at Pataliputra. It is obviously impossible for a being to be both
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
