Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 47

METAPHYSICAL BASIS OF JAINA ETHICS
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sense; i.e., as "a secondary, a dull, irrational, recalcitrant force, the unwilling slave of mind”.Nor does it admit of its being considered to be a sensation-complex, or a collection of ideas as signified by the subjective idealism of Barkeley. Apart from this, it is to be distinguished from the Praksti of Sāmkhya. Jainism propounds matter in the realistic sense, and so its cognizance is based on its characteristic sense-qualities of touch, taste, smell and colour, which are in the realtion of invariable concomitance, i.e., one quality is never found in isolation but always, in a group of four, though in varying degrees of intensity. The conception of matter is so comprehensive as to comprise under it the five substances of earth, water, air, light and Dravya-mind out of the nine substances admitted by the Vaiseșika. Hence these five substances are easily assimilable in Pudgala, since they emerge out of material atoms by varying combinations. The aforementioned four qualities of atom admit of numerable, innumerable and infinite classifications, but the principal kinds are regarded as twenty; namely, eight kinds of touch (soft, hard, heavy, light, hot, cold, viscous, and rough,* five kinds of taste (bitter, pungent, sour, sweet, and astringent); two kinds of smell (fragrance and the reverse);& and five kinds of colour (blue, yellow, white, black and red).? The functions of Pudgala are: the five types of body, the speech, the mind, the Karmic particles, the breathing including exhailing and inhailing, pleasure and pain, life and death, and the five senses.
KINDS OF PUDGALA: The principal forms in which Pudgala (matter) exists, are Aņu (atom) and Skandha (aggregate).10 Binary to infinite aggregates are included in Skandha.11 An atom consists of only one Pradesa, is the terminus of divisibility of matter, is by itself without beginning, end or middle, is destitute of sound and is coupled with the qualiites of taste, touch, smell and colour.12 Besides, it is indestructible and eternal, is responsible for the disruption of Skandhas by virtue of its segregation from them, is also the substantial cause of them and is the measure of time. 13 Again it is devoid of sound, but is the cause of sound; i.e., the combination of atoms may produce sound when they strike against other
1 History of Philosophy (Edition 1949) p. 59. 2 Ta.su. V. 23,; Sarvärtha. V. 5. 3 Sarvārtha. V. 3. 4 Sarvārtha. V. 23. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Five types of body are: audārika (physical), vaikriyika (fluid), ahāraka (assimila
tive), taijasa (electric) and kārmaņa (karmic), see Ta, sū. II. 36. 9 Pañcā. 82,; Sarvārtha. V. 19, 20. 10 Ta. sū. V. 25,; Niyama. 20. 11 Sarvārtha. V. 26. 12 Pañcā. 77. 13 Pañcā. 80.