Jain Journal 1969 01

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

Page 44

GLEANINGS
THE ATOMIC THEORY OF THE JAINAS
Of the nine categories of the Jainas, that of ajiva (the not-soul or non-ego) consists of five entities, four of which are immaterial (amürta), viz., merit (dharma), demerit (adharma), space (ākāśa) and time (kāla), and the fifth material (mürta-possessing of figure). The last is called pudgala (matter) and this alone is the vehicle of Energy, which is essentially kinetic, i.e., of the nature of motion. Every thing in the world of not-soul (the non-ego) is either an entity (dravya) or a change of state in an entity (paryāya). Pudgala (matter) and its changes of state (paryāya) whether of the nature of subtle motion (parispanda) or of evolution (parināma), must furnish the physical as opposed to the meta-physical basis of all our explanations of Nature. Pudgala (matter) exists in two forms, anu (atom) and skandha (aggregate). The Jainas begin with an absolutely homogeneous mass of pudgalas, which by differentiation (bheda) breaks up into several kinds of atoms qualitatively detern and by differentiation, integration, and differentiation in the integrated (sanghātāt, bhedāt, samghāta-bhedāt, Umasvati, Tattvārthādhigama, Chap. V, Sūtra 26) forms aggregates (skandhas). An aņu has no parts, no beginning, middle or end. An anu is not only infinitesimal, but a eternal and ultimate. A skandha may vary from a binary aggregate (dyyanuka) to an infinitum (anantāņuka). A binary skandha is an aggregate of two anus (atoms), a tertiary skandha is formed by the addition of an atom (aņu) to the binary (dvyaņuka) and so on ad infinitum. The ascending grades are (1) what can be numbered (samkheya), (2) indefinitely large (asamkheya), (3) infinity of the first order (ananta), (4) infinity of the second order (anantānanta) and so on.