Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 49

INTRODUCING JAINISM
2) Suşamā (period of happiness) 3) Suşamā-duhsamā (period of happiness and misery) 4) duhşamā-suşamā (period of misery and happiness) 5) duhşamā (period of misery), 6) duhşamā-duhşamā (period of extreme misery).
Like the wheel of train, the wheel of time moves from below to above and vice versa in both the eras. In the utsarpiņi era the progress of human beings increases step by step from misery to happiness, and in the avasarpiņi era the process is reverse, i.e., the progress of human beings decreases step by step from happiness to misery. The calculation of time consumed by both the eras is more than lacs and crores. At present, in the avasarpiņi period the 24 Tīrthankaras were born and got nirvana at their death. Of the declining era, four stages of time have elapsed and the fifth division (i.e. duhşamā period) is continuing.
In the Pañcāstikāya (verses 24-25) time is described thus:
vavagada-pañavaņņa-raso vavagada-dogandhaattaphāso ya/ aguru-lahugo amutto vattang-lakkho ya kālo tti// samayo ņimiso kattā kalāya ņāli tado divā-ratti/ māsa-udu-ayaņa-samvaccharo tti kālo parāyatto//
"That which is devoid of five colours (krishna (black), harita (green), pita (yellow), rakta (red), and sveta (white)); of five tastes (tikta (pungent) katuka (bitter), kshāra (saline), kashāyita (acid), and mishta (sweet)); of two smells (sugandha (agreeable) and durgandha (disagreeable)), of eight kinds of touch (light and heavy, smooth and rough, soft and hard and hot and cold); and which has the agurulaghu attribute (i.e. the set of central attributes which sustain the others), is immaterial and is characterized by modifications (of other substances)-is time (kāla). Samaya (unit of time), nimisha, kāshthā, kalā, nāli, divārātra, māsa, rtu, ayana, samvatsara- these are secondary time."
(J.L. Jaini, Outlines of Jainism, p. 86).
Although the broad division of time is avasarpiņi and