Jain Journal 1979 01

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

Page 25

JANUARY, 1979
modes (paryāyas). Permanence (dhrauvya) means indestructibility of the essential quality (guna)14.
It is evident from the above account that the tradition of discussing the nature of the universe and non-universe as well as soul and matter was comparatively old, that of discussing the nature of five extensive substances is comparatively recent and that of discussing the nature of six substances is comparatively more recent. It seems that the tradition of discussing the nature of reality in general is still more recent. This problem as such seems not to have been raised in the old canonical texts. The Uttaradhyayana hints at the problem and the Tattvārtha-sütra discusses it in a little detail and comes out with a well formulated answer of which there is no trace in these old texts. The Bhagavati etc. have, no doubt, the concepts of substance, mode, quality etc. but the Tattvārtha way of defining the real as characterised by origination, destruction and permanence is absent in them.
The Tattvārtha concept, i.e. Umasvati's concept of reality as the synthesis of permanence and change is further developed by Samantabhadra in his Aptamimāmsa. He has a clear idea of the doctrine of nonabsolutism that a thing must be characterised by two mutually contradictory features at one and the same time. In order to justify this position he examines the following ontological pairs of contradictory features :
(1) Existence and non-existence (2) Identity and difference (3) Permanence and change (4) Cause and effect (5) Substance and mode (6) Mental existence and physical existence.
Samantabhadra first considers two one-sided views and then offers a synthesis of the two. This framework became model for subsequent Jaina philosophers.
14 Ibid., 5.31
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