Jain Journal 1970 10

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

Page 24

OCTOBER, 1970
as the substratum of quality by Nyaya-Vaisesika, they fight shy of admitting the qualities as forming the nature of the substance.
The Jaina reply to these is: firstly, if a quality is absolutely different from its substance, it is illegitimate to say that it belongs to the substance. "There cannot be the relation of dharma (adjunct) and dharmin (substantive) between two things, if there is absolute difference between them."3 Nor can the inherence be considered as the link between the two because it is not perceived. Again, in what relation does this 'inherence' subsist in the substance ? If the inherence is regarded as subsisting in the relation of another inherence, there will obviously be regressus ad infinitum.
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Secondly, we cannot conceive how the substance could first 'exist' without possessing any definite character and then subsequently (with the help of inherence) acquire its qualities or characteristic modes of being. Nothing can be or exist at all without 'being in some determinate way, and this "being in some determinate way" is precisely what we mean by the qualities of a substance. We cannot therefore divorce the existence (or that) of a thing from its determinate mode of being (or what) and regard the latter as something which supervenes on or is derived from the former, or the former as something which can exist without and (absolutely) apart from the latter. It is not difficult to see that the main objection of the Jainas in the above views, is against the absolutistic attitude. Qualities cannot be absolutely distinct from the substance nor can they be absolutely identical with it. A quality cannot belong to the substance without becoming its nature and being. The Jainas admit that qualities are ever changing but maintain that change of quality does not mean destruction of nature (of a thing). An entity preserves its nature through change. The qualities also preserve their identities through their ever changing modes. Therefore, the true relation between the substance and its qualities is one of identity-cumdifference. The element of identity explains the experience of persistence while that of difference explains the experience of change.
The Jaina definition of reality thus is "what is capable of continuous eternal existence through (infinite) changes of creation and cessation"5 and also "what possesses an infinite number of attributes".
3 See Acharya Hemchandra's Syadvadamanjari.
4 J. S. D., 1, 40.
5 utpadavyayadhrauvyayuktam sat, Tattva., 5, 29.
6 gunanamasayo davvam, Uttara., 28, 6.