Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 65

SUTRA 1 (Akasa)
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अवगासदाण जोग्गं जीवादीणं वियाण आयासं।
जेण्हं लोगागासं अल्लोगागासमिदि दुविहं ।। 87 (According to Jainism, that which allows space to jiva, etc., is to be known as ākāśa. The ākāśa is of two kinds : lokakasa and alokakāsa.)
The learned author of Tattvārthavārtika says : आकाशन्तेऽस्मिन् द्रव्याणि स्वयं वाकाशत इत्याकाशम् ।
जीवादीनि द्रव्याणि स्वैः स्वैः पर्यायैः अव्यतिरेकेण यस्मिन्नाकाशन्ते प्रकाशन्ते तदाकाशम्, स्वयं चात्मीयपर्यायमर्यादया आकाशत इत्याकाशम् अवकाशदानाद् वा । (अथवा इतरेषां द्रव्याणामवकाशदानादाकाशमिति पृषोदरादिषु निपातितः शब्दः ।) ४४
(The same author Sri Akalankadeva has illustrated the accommodating power of space by saying that akaśa allows other substances to penetrate itself just as water allows a swan (यथा हंसो जलमवगाहते) but this analogy should not be interpreted too strictly. In fact a swan displaces a certain yolume of water while akaśa being a subtle substance, the idea of displacement does not occur there.
We give below a few more quotations to show that the idea of space in Jainism refers to the mathematician's real space and not to any such thing as the aether :
जीवानाम् पद्गलानां च कालस्याधर्मधर्मयोः। अवगाहनहेतुत्वं नदिदं प्रतिपद्यते॥90 नित्यं व्यापकमाकाशमवगाहैकलक्षणम् । चराचराणि भूतानि यत्रासंबाधमासते।। लोकालोकनभोभेदादाकाशोऽत्र द्विधा भवेत्।
अवकाशप्रदः सर्वद्रव्यानां मूर्तिवजितः ।।" Exactly the same idea is expressed in the Svetāmbara Sūtra :
अवगाहणालक्खणे णं आगासत्थिकाए। 2 (To accommodate objects is the characteristic of space.)
87. Dravyasamgraha, 19. 88. Tattvārth-rājavārtika on Tattvārtha-sutra 5.1 (21-22). 89. Rajavartika on Tattvartha-sutra 5.18. 90. Tartvārthasara, 3.38. 91. Vardhamāna-purana, 16.31. 92. Vyākhya-prajnapti, 13.4.481.