________________
Jaina Conception of Matter
form.1 Acarya Pūjyapāda explains the point by refuting this view in the following manner: "It is not true to say that air and mind do not possess colour, taste, etc. Indeed air possesses colour and so on, as it touches like the pitcher and so on. If it is said that colour, taste and smell are absent in air because these are not perceived by the sense of sight, then it would lead to the negation of atoms also. Water is characterized by smell, as it possesses touch like earth. Similarly, mind also is of two kinds-physical mind and psychical mind. Therein the psychical mind is knowledge. And knowledge is the attribute of Soul. So it comes under Soul. As the physical mind is characterized by colour, taste, smell and touch, it is a modification of matter. The physical mind is characterized by colour, taste, smell and touch, for it is the cause of knowledge like the sense of sight."
"It is contended that we do not see the air and mind producing the effect (Kāryatvaṁ) of colour, taste, etc., as we do in the case of atoms. We say that such an effect can be admitted that all atoms can produce effects containing (all) colours, tastes, smells, etc. There are no atoms of the class of earth, water, fire or air. For all activity proceeds with the intermixture of blending of classes."3 According to the theory science, air can be converted into a "bluish liquid by continuous cooling just as steam can be converted into water." This scientific experiment demonstrates that air is endowed with the quality of colour and is therefore incorporated into the category of matter.
The Nyaya-Vaiseṣika system of thought propounds the theory that fire is endowed with the quality of touch and colours only, but it is devoid of taste and smell, while air possesses 1. Sparśavan vayuḥ - VS., II. 1.4; Tarkasaṁgraha, 12. 2. Sarvarthasiddhi, pp. 268-9; Reality, p. 131.
3. Ibid., p. 269; Reality, 131.
4. Cosmology, Old and New, p. 78.
5. Tejo rūpasparśavat
19
Jain Education International
VS. II. 1, 3; Tarkasaṁgraha, 11, 19.
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
