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SELF STUDY IS THE SUPREME AUSTERITY,
Persistence and the Distinction between Guna and Paryāyas
The Jaina conception of persistence is defined as that which accounts for recognition in the form of the proposition "This is the same". This is consequent on the fact then the essential nature of substance or quality, notwithstanding its mobility, is eternal and unchangeable.10 Thus the continuously flowing nature of quality does not annihilate the quality itself, which, if admitted, would fail to our entire daily commonplace, transaction. Continuance devoid of variability stands in direct antagonism to experience. Hence permanence is not the denial of change, but includes it as its necessary aspect. In the same way, qualities in the absence of modifications are incapable of being of conceived. To distinguish Guna from Paryaya, in the first place, the infinite attributes are ever simultaneously present, but the modifications do not appear simultaneously, but only in succession Secondly, qualities render the judgment of sameness possible, while the judgment 'This is not the same' is accountable only by making allusion to modifications. Thirdly, Gunas as such are to be interpreted as immutable in contrast to Paryāyas which are regarded as mutable. In other words, attributes of a substance are created with the nature of perpetuation, while the originative and decaying designations are accorded to Paryaya.
Classified of Substance: Plurality, Duality and Unity
Jainism resolves the whole of the universe of being into two everlasting, uncreated, coexisting, but independent categories of Jiva and Ava. The Ava is further classified into Pudgala matter, Dharma principle of motion, Adharma principle of rest, Ākāśa space and kāla time. Hence reality is dualistic as well as pluralistic. But, according to the Jaina, plurality, considered from the point of view of one existence, entails unity also. According to Kundakunda, in spite of the unique characteristics possessed by the different substances, existence has been regarded as an all-comprising characteristic of reality which ends all distinctions.11 The Kärttikeyanuprekṣā recognises that all substances are one from the standpoint of substance, while they are distinct and separate from their characteristics differences.12 Samantabhadra also endorses this view by affirming that in view of the
9 Sarvarthasiddhi, V. 31
10 Sarvärthasiddhi, V. 31
11 Commentary on Pravacanasara, by Amṛtacandra; II. 5.
12 Kärttikeyanupreksa; 236; Rajacandra Ashram, Agas
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0
