Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 20

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INTRODUCTION
point in the Gaussian system of Geometry used by Einstein.
The Jaina concepts of ákāśa, dharma and adharma are very peculiar. The akaśa is infinite. It is divided into cosmic akaśa and acosmic åkāśa. The cosmic äkāśa is finite. It is that portion of the infinite ākāśa, which is occupied by dharma, adharma, jiva and pudgala
The basic property of ākāśa is to provide place for the other substances, Akāśa, as penetrated by dharma and adharma (which are the mediums of motion and rest respectively), accommodates the jīvas and pudgala whether they are in motion or in rest ?
As regards pudgala, namely, material bodies and atoms, they have the qualities of colour, taste, odour and touch The Jaina philosopher does not believe in class distinctions of atoms like earth, air, fire, and water as the Vaišeșika philosopher does: The atoms give rise to different species of matter. It should be noted in this connection that a material atom has no physical parts (pradeśa), whereas a material body necessarily has. Another peculiar feature of the Jaina atomic theory is that an infinite number of atoms can find room in the same space-point that is occupied by a single atom.
Now we come to the substance called kāla. The Jaina philosophers are not agreed about the substantial nature of kala. Some say that it is a quality; some again are of the view that it is a mode. But there is also a scriptural tradition that kala is a substance. According to the Digambara tradition there are as many time atoms as there are pradeśas in the cosmic space, a single pradeśa being occupied by one time-atom.
1 cf. Basham : "Jainism and Buddhism" in William Theodore de Bary, ed, Sources
in Indian Tradition, Vol. I, Page 77, n. 3. 2 TSü, Vol I, p. 332: avagāhinām anupraveśavatäm avagāhaḥ praveśah pratiştha
pudgalādīnām dharmadharma-dravya-dvayāvagādhe vyomni bhavati. 3 lbid., p. 328 : sarveşām pradeśāḥ santi, anyatra paramāņoh. avayavās tu skan
dhānām eva: 4 Ibid., p. 333 : paramāņor ekasminn eva pradeśe, dyaņukasyaikasmin dvayoś ca,
tryaņukasyaikasmin dvayos trişu ca, evam caturaṇukādinām samkhyeyāsamkhye
ya-pradeśasyaikādisu samkhyeyeşu asamkhyeyesu ca, anantapradeśasya ca. 5 Ibid., pp. 429-433. 6 Sarvārthasiddhi, 602 : lokākāśasya yāvantaḥ pradeśās tåvantaḥ kālāņavo niskriyā ekaikākāśa-pradeśe ekaikavšityā lokam vyāpya vyavasthitaḥ. uktam ca
logāgāsapadese ekkekke je třhiyā hu ekkekkā / rayaņānam rāsī viva te kālāņū muñeyavvā //