Dravyasamgraha

Author(s): Nemichandra Acharya, Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 74

Verse 15
The substance of Space (ākāśa) The reality of Space is borne out by the fact that in order to reach things it is necessary to traverse the distance which separates them from ourselves. Further, the removal of space can only result either in the throwing of all things into 'nowhere' or in the complete isolation of each individual atom from all the rest of its kind, and in its being doomed to an eternal solitary confinement. The one is, however, as inconceivable as the other, for ‘nowhere'is as great an absurdity as absolute vacuity, and isolation is only possible in Space, never in spacelessness...
... The infinity of space is evident from the fact that we cannot conceive it as finite. If it were a finite substance, it would be limited by something else, and would have a 'beyond' to it which must be either another piece of Space or pure emptiness. But not the latter, for the reasons already given. It would then be the former. But the two finite spaces would themselves require an inter-space to fill in their interstices. We should then have to enquire whether this inter-space be infinite or not, and, if it turn out to be finite, to posit a second inter-space, and so forth, ad infinitum. But this is absurd, for one infinite Space is sufficient for the purpose of finding room for all things.
Space, then, is a substance which is infinite and nonatomistic, that is, partless. Its function is to find room for all things, though being the nature of “place,” it does not stand in need of it itself.
The claim of space to rank as a reality is based upon its partless, non-atomistic nature, which preserves it in one condition always. Not being an effect, but only a simple substance in itself, it cannot be conceived to have been produced from other substances; and as such must be an ultimate reality, that is, a thing in itself.
57