Dravyasamgraha

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

Page 75

Dravyasamgraha
The infinity of space, called ākāśa in Sanskrit, is divided by the Jaina siddhānta into two parts, namely, the lokākāśa (loka+ākāśa), that is the space occupied by the universe, and the alokākāśa (a not, and lokākāśa), the portion beyond the universe. The lokākāśa is the portion in which are to be found the remaining five substances, i.e., Jīvas, Matter, Time, Dharma and Adharma; but the alokākāśa is the region of pure space containing no other substance and lying stretched on all sides beyond bounds of the three worlds (the entire universe)...
... Space, thus, is a self-subsisting entity; it cannot be created or destroyed, by any process of regression, or progression. In its infinity of extension, it includes the universe of matter and form as well as that which lies beyond. As a simple substance it is uncreated and eternal, hence, a self-subsisting reality, since there is neither a being to create it, nor any possible source for its creation.
Jain, Champat Rai, The Key of Knowledge, p. 518-520.
The substance of Time (kāla) The next substance to demand our attention is Time, the thread of continuity on which are strung the successive moments of sequence. That Time is a reality, is evident from the fact that neither the continuation of substances and things, nor the sequence of events can be possibly conceived without it. The primary conception involved in the idea of time is that of continuity, since the power to continue in Time is enjoyed by all substances, and, to a limited extent, also by all bodies and forms. Continuity itself is not a summation of a series of discontinuous events, changes, or moments, but a process of persistence, i.e., an enduring from the past into the everrenewing present-a survival, or carrying over, of individuality,
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