Dravyasamgraha

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

Page 88

Verse 19 & 20 These substances (the media of motion and rest, the souls and the forms of matter) are located in the space of the universe.
Ācārya Pujyapada’s Sarvārthasiddhi The substances mentioned such as the medium of motion are located in the space of the universe, and not outside it. If space is the support of the medium of motion and so on, what is the support of space? The reply is that there is no other support for space. Space is supported by itself. Now the following contention arises. If another support is postulated for the medium of motion and the other substances, another support must be postulated for space also. If that is done, it will lead to infinite regress. But it is not so. There is no substance which is more extensive than space, wherein it can be said to be located. It is infinitefold of all other categories. Hence, from the empirical point of view, space is said to be the receptacle (support) of the medium of motion etc. But, from the intrinsically genuine or exact point of view, all substances are situated in themselves. For instance, if someone asks another, “Where are you?' he gives the reply, 'I am in myself.' The effect of referring to these as the supporter and the supported (the container and the contained) amounts to only this much. The medium of motion and the other substances do not exist outside the space of the universe. It is contended that the idea or state of the container and the contained applies only to things which come into existence one after the other. For instance the plums are in the basinl. In that manner space is not prior to the other substances such as the medium of motion. Hence, even from the
1 The basin is prior to the plums. But from the Jaina point of view all
substances are uncreated, self-existing and beginningless. Hence the question of space being prior to the other substances does not arise. Such a view is untenable from the Jaina standpoint.
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