Indian Culture and Jainism

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Vidya Samsthan

Page 19

already said that permanence signifies persistence of substance along with attributes, and change refers to fluctuating modes along with the emergence of the new modes and the disappearance of the old ones at one and the same time. (i) Metaphysical Anekānta and the Classification of Substance :
(Plurality, Duality and Unity) Jainism resolves the whole of the universe of being into two everlasting, un-created, co-existing, but independent categories of Jīva and Ajīva. The Ajīva 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 allcomprising characteristic of reality which ends all distinctions34. Samantabhadra also endorses this view by affirming that in view of the conception of one universal existence all are one, but from the point of view of substances distinctions arise. 35 In his Saptabhangitarangiņi Vimaladāsa concludes that both the postulation of existential identity and the articulation of differences from the stand-point of different substances are logically necessary and justifiable36. Thus Jainism gives credence to the recognition of existential oneness but not exclusively, since it is always bound up with plurality. This is quite consistent with the Anekāntātmaka view of reality propounded by the Jaina philosopher. Hence unity, duality, and plurality-all are inseparably and inevitably involved in
the structure of reality. This is the Anekāntic view of reality. (ii) Knowledge of Anekāntic reality (Pramāṇa and Naya)
According to Jainism reality or substance is cognized by Pramāņa and Naya??. Pramāṇa refers to the grasping of reality in its wholeness, while Naya points to an aspect of infinitely-phased reality illumined by Pramāņa, thus the latter takes into consideration only a fragment of the totality38. A substance embellishes itself with apparent antagonisms. The emphasis on the one and the cancellation of the other would irresistibly lead us to the biased
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Indian Culture and Jainism