Concept of Paryaya in Jain Philosophy

Author(s): S R Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The Concept of Paryaya : A Vedic Perspective Dayanand Bhargava The Jaina Position The word paryaya is generally translated as "mode". In a substance, one paryaya vanishes and another paryaya emerges, though the substance remains the same. There is no substance without the modes, nor are there modes without substance. There is no origination without destruction and no destruction without origination, while neither origination nor destruction is possible without a permanent substance. Thus origination, permanence and destruction - these three constitute a substance. This, in short, is the Jaina view.? The Etymology As origination and destruction rotate one after the other, they are therefore, called paryaya which literally means to go in rotation (pari+i). The Sanskrit word for change, parivartana, also means the same thing (pari+vrt). We can, therefore, conclude that the paryaya indicates the phenomena of change which is described sometimes as destruction (mrtyu)?, sometimes as destruction-cum-origination, (utpada-vyaya) 3, sometimes as origination-cum-permanence-cum-destruction (utpattisthiti-pralaya)4 and sometimes as origination, existence, growth, change, decay and destruction (jayate, asti, vardhate, viparinamate, apaksiyate, nasyati)5. In contradiction to change, permanence is called immortality (amsta) or stability (dhrauvya).