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THE ESSENCE OF JAINA SCRIPTURES
lakshanam, PKS 10; also sat dravya lakshanam, TS 5.29). The existent reality, he adds, is that which is nitya (permanent) (PKS 6). Yet, at the same time, parinami or traikalika bhava parinata (PKS 6), i.e. one that undergoes modifications in all three times (past, present and future), thereby manifesting the characteristic of dravya bhava (PKS 6), dravati (PKS 9) or dravyatva, i.e. “that which by nature, flows towards its modes”. The substance is permanent (TS 5.4) and permanence (nityam) is indestructibility of the essential nature (quality) of the substance (tad bhavavyayam nityam, TS 5.31).
The intrinsic nature of substance (tadbhava) is the existence of the past nature in the present. It is that existence, condition or mode, which is the cause of recognition or remembrance. In other words, a thing is seen as having the same nature with which it was seen formerly. So it is recognized in the form, “This is the same as that”. “This is that only” is recognition. 102
Thus, recognition of the object in future proves its permanence. It is noteworthy that while the intrinsic nature of a substance is permanent, it is also evolvent (parinami), i.e. undergoes modifications or changes in its modes. It is, therefore, called parinami nitya. Modification (parinama) of a substance means the continuity of the essential nature of substance and its qualities (guna) through changes (tadbhavah parinamah, TS 5.42).
In other words, a substance is the combination of the contradictory characteristics/points of view (sa-pratipaksha) of dhrauvya (indestructibility, constancy or continuity) while undergoing utpad vyaya (origination and destruction), i.e. change or modifications (bhangotpaddhrauvyatmika sa-pratipaksha (PKS 8), (utpad vyaya dhrauvya sambaddham) (PS 95) or utpad vyaya dhrauvya yuktam sat (TS 5.30). Thus, a substance (i.e. existent reality) is neither absolutely changeless or permanent (sarvatha nitya) nor absolutely impermanent, transitory or changing (sarvatha kshanik) (PKS 8 AC). What appears and disappears are modes (paryaya); what persists is substance. Origination and cessation coexist with persistence/stability.
There is, Kundakunda elaborates, no coming-into-existence or origination without destruction. There is no destruction devoid of origination. Thereby, he declares that there is necessary concomitance (avinabhava) between one another. By stating that origination and destruction are possible only when there is an abiding something
