Jain Journal 1966 10

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

Page 11

OCTOBER, 1966
51
The Jainas think that the reality is so complex in its nature that while everyone of these views is true as far as it goes, none is completely true. The precise nature of reality baffles all attempts to describe it directly and once for all ; but it is not impossible to make it known through a series of partially true statements without committing ourselves to any one of them exclusively. Hence the notion of sapta-bhangi which leaves no room for the charge of dogma in any form. There is some enduring factor (dravya) in all the changes with which experience makes us familiar but its modes or the forms it assumes (paryāya) may be of any conceivable variety and they perish indefinitely. Take for instance the soul (ātmā). If it is presumed that the soul is absolutely permanent (ekānta nitya, and not mere nitya), then it would mean that it has no change of state or location, that it suffers no change or end. If this be true, then it will never have any experience with pleasure and non-pleasure, virtue and non-virtue. But really it is not so. Not only in the soul but also in any inanimate object, the transformation is continuous and without a break. Every object is susceptible to change because every moment its category changes. If on the other hand it is assumed that the soul is absolutely transcient (ekānta anitya or sarbathā kşanika), similar tions will crop up. The soul falls in different states, assumes different categories and yet in all the states and categories it is permanent and undivided (nitya and akhanda)'. This character is not lost even though the soul passes through different births, just as a man does not lose his character despite all changes in physical form. And because of this, the outcome of all deeds, good as well as bad, appear in time and the ultimate responsibility for all deeds remains unaltered and unalterable till undergone and because of this again there are possibilities of spiritual progress till the attainment of complete liberation (mokşa). But if the soul be an ever-changing category in the Buddistic sense, then how will the outcome of good and bad deeds fructify ? In absolute transitoriness there will be no scope for memory (smsti) even. Jainism recognises both permanence and change as equally real. Experience shows that in all changes there are three elements : (a) some qualities remain unchanged, (b) some new qualities are generated, and (c) some old qualities are dropped. “All production means that some old qualities have been lost, some new ones brought in and there is some part in it which is permanent. It is by virtue of these unchanged qualities that a thing is said to be permanent though undergoing change. Such being the case the truth comes to this that there is always a permanent entity as represented by the permanence of such qualities as lead us to call it a substance in spite of all its diverse changes. The solution of Jainism is thus a reconciliation of the two extremes of Vedāntism and Buddhism ......"10 If this notion of reality appears somewhat complicated in com