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2.2.b
Reality (Sat) and Concept of Dravya (Substance) in Jaina Philosophy
Dr. Veer Sagar Jain & Dr. Shugan Chand Jain
1.0 Reality: Preamble Looking at the colorful and different forms of existences in the universe, it is natural to be inquisitive about the form and nature of reality i.e. their ultimate source of origin. Is it one entity with its manifold modifications or manifestations or the reality itself is manifold. Therefore all philosophers and philosophies start their enquiry about self and the universe around, with first understanding the reality (sat) and its nature. They soon came up with two related alternatives namely:
The problem of change - Is changing real? The problem of one and many - Is reality one or many?
The views of western and Indian philosophers are discussed in a separate paper on Jain views of reality with reference to western philosophers.
1.1 Indian philosophers Like the western philosophers, we find Indian philosophers also made similar statements, e.g.:
a kara's Advait-Ved nta presents the thesis of unchanging, eternal, and conscious and one reality - Brahm. For him change, plurality and all worldly things are illusory.
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On the other hand Buddhists consider change as real. (Only Ng rjuna like a kara denies the reality of worldly things. Other schools of Buddhism do not deny worldly things)
S khya believes in duality of existence. They talk of Purusa (sentient) and Prakrti (insentient)
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Ny ya talk of multiplicity of existences like air, water, fire and earth as different forms of insentient besides soul being sentient.
Jain philosophers and spiritual leaders accept existence of all beings as real and multiple with broad grouping as sentient and insentient beings. Basic considerations about their views on reality are based on the following:
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It accepts permanence, change, multiplicity and identity or similarity simultaneously because in our experience we always find particularity and universality or generality simultaneously. They look at an explanation that is free of fallacy of partial view of reality as any generalization about reality on the basis of single characteristic suffers from the ek ntika doşa (mono-ism). It is therefore based on the doctrine of multiplicity of viewpoints (Anek ntav da). Hence the reality should be viewed both from permanence viewpoint (substance) as well as momentary (mode) viewpoint also. It therefore considers both permanence as well as change as real. So they consider reality as permanence with change.
1.3 Nature of Reality in Jainism The nature and characteristics of reality (sat) are given by the three S tras from Tattv ratha S tra Jain c rya Um Svii
Sat dravyalaksa am Utp da-vyaya-dhrauvyayukta Gu aparyayavad dravayam
sat
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