Jain Journal 1972 07

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

Page 32

JULY, 1972
This thesis is very rational ; for, the answer to the question as to how this metaphysical postulate has been formed, is, that the knowledge has been imparted by liberated souls.
In the process of life purifying itself from karmic matter, certain higher lives have been evolved ; and they have been the teachers of the world in this respect amongst others.
These liberated souls are not creators, though they are worthy of worship ; because, positing the thesis that one becomes the thing on which one meditates, these liberated souls are to be the summum bonum of every man's existence : one may even meditate on them as one's own self.
All the virtues, which, even in man, we cognise as of divine origin, are in these liberated souls in their fullness, and, from time to time, they take on forms to return to the earth to help, to teach and save, souls.
Matter, says Jaina philosophy, is as real as the soul or life. It differs from the latter : and its difference is, that, whilst matter has no consciousness, the soul has consciousness.
The second postulate of matter is energy.
The principle of motion was posited in Jaina philosophy from its very inception : that matter contained in itself the power of motion and once moved, would continue to move until something stopped it, when it remained in its third division of rest.
So matter possesses, at one and the same time, two innate properties : one of movement, the other of rest ; and it is these two principles inherent in matter, that have introduced order into the universe.
The fourth postulate is time.
Time in Jaina philosophy is a postulate necessary for the understanding of growth and existence.
It is a condition for the change in matter ; matter, being as eternal as life, may, by its inner energy, change ; but its total quantity never increases or decreases.