Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Shuchita Publication Varanasi

Page 11

and inanimate objects. The former comprise an infinite number of independent souls in varying degrees of physical and spiritual development, and the latter consist of space, time, the media of motion and rest, and matter in different forms, Spirit and matter are thus the reals which are pluralistic, eternal and not liable to lose or interchange their nature. These irreducible constituents being themselves existential give an existential character to the universe. Each of these substances is the substratum of qualities and modes, which are its determinates and on which its own intelligibility depends. The substance is also subject to constant, incessant change in the qualities and modes of which it is made up. Thus, origination and destruction refer to modification of qualities on the permanent bedrock of substance which is consequently both permanent and impermanent at one and the same time. It is only the permanent that changes, for in the absence of permanence change is
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