________________
28 :: Aspects of Jaina Religion
understand the nature of reality as it exists, sat is the concept that explains the nature of reality.
Jainism believes that sat, i.e., the reality, is uncreated and eternal and further asserts that sat, i.e., the reality, is characterised by: utpăda, i.e., origination or appearance, vyaya, i.e., destruction or disappearance, and dhrauvya, i.e., permanence. Jainism categorically states that every object of reality is found possessed of infinite characters, both with respect to what it is and what it is not. In other words, according to Jainism every object of reality has its paryāyas, i.e., modes, and gunas, i.e., qualities, through which persist the essential substrata through all the times. That is why it is asserted that the basic substance with its guņas, i.e., qualities, is something that is permanent, and that its paryāyas, i.e., the modes or changing characteristic appear and disappear. Thus both change and permanence are facts of experience. For example, the soul or spirit is eternal with its inseparable character of consciousness, but at the same time it is subjected to accidental characters like pleasure and pain and superimposed modes such as body, etc., both of which are changing constantly. For instance, gold with its colour and density is something that is permanent though it is subjected to different shapes at different times.
Jainism believes that in this world dravyas, i.e., the substances, are real as they are characterised by existence. Jainism also believes that the entire substances of the universe can be broadly divided into two major categories, viz., jīva, i.e., living, or soul and ajīva, i.e., non-living, or non-soul. These two categories exhaust between them all that exists in the universe. Jaina philosophy is based on the nature and interaction of these two elements.
It is this interaction between the living and the non-living, when they come into contact with each other, that certain energies generate which bring about birth, death and various experiences of life. This process can be stopped, and the energies already forged can be destroyed by a course of discipline leading to salvation.
