Faith Knowledge and Conduct

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT ·
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Substances are eternal, and cannot be created or destroyed. They are, from another point of view, only so many bundles of qualities; for qualities inhere in substances, and cannot exist independently of a substantive basis. If qualities could exist by themselves, then existence would be able to exist by itself, too. But in that case it would simply be a featureless entity, and all other things would be deprived of being, because of their being separated off from existence itself. In either case the result is unacceptable to reason.
Qualities may become or remain un-expressed or suppressed, but they can never be destroyed altogether, or separated from the substances in which they inhere.
The world had no beginning in time; for the supposition would involve the non-existence of substances, or, in the alternative, the suspension of their functions, which is equally inconceivable. For to exist in nature is only to function. Every substance has its particular mode of existence in its very function, in respect of which it differs from the other substances. If the specific function of a thing is taken off, its existence will be counter-indicated. The supposition that things can exist apart from their function can only mean that they both exist and not exist at the same time, since to function is only to exist in a particularized way, and to exist is only to discharge a particular function!