Jain Journal 1981 01

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

Page 17

JANUARY, 1981
93
relations. A relation, according to Dharmakirti, is a conceptual fiction (sambandhah kalpanākļtah), like universal and hence it is unreal.. He also rejects the two possible ways of entertaining a relation in universal. They are dependence (partantrya sambandha) and interpenetration (rūpaśleșasambandha).28
On the other hand, the Jainas, on the basis of non-absolute standpoint, try to remove the extreme externalism of the Naiyayikas and the extreme illusionism or idealism of Buddhism and Advaitism. They maintain that a relation is a deliverence of the direct and objective experience. Relation is not merely an inferable but also an indubitably perceptual fact. Without recognising relation, no object can be concrete and useful and atoms would be existing unconnected.
As regards the rejection of two possible ways of relation, the Jainas say that they should not be rejected. For, partantra sambandha is not mere dependence as the Buddhists ascribe, but it unifies the relata. 29 Rupaśleșa is also untenable for the purpose. The two points are here to be noted : the first is that according to Jainism, the relata never lose their individuality. They make internal changes having constant internal relation with the external changes happening to them. In adopting this attitude the Jainas avoid the two extremes of the Naiyayikas' externalism and the Vedantins' internalism. Another point is that the Jainas consider relation to be a combination of the relata in it as something unique or suigeneris (jātyantara). It is a character or trait in which the nature of relata have not totally disappeared but are converted into a new form. For instance, nara-sinha is a combination of the units of nara (man) and sinha (lion). They are neither absolutely independent nor absolutely dependent, but are identity-in-difference. Hence the Jainas are of the view that relation is the structure of reality which is identity-in-difference. 30
It may be noted here that the sāmānyavāda of the Jainas is almost similar to parițāmavāda of Sankhyas, cidbrahama of Vedantins and sabdadyaitavāda of Savdabrahma. Sāmānya of Naiyayikas is nitya and vyāpaka whereas sāmānya in Jainism is anitya and avyāpaka. The Mimansakas'sāmānya is leaning to ekāntavāda. Buddhists are of opinion that substance is absolutely momentary. But Jainas say that it is not kūțasthanitya but it is avicchinna with having constant modes.
28 Pramanavartika, 3.237. 29 Nyayakumudacandra, p. 307 ; Jaina Theory of Reality and Knowledge, p. 283. 30 NKC., p. 369.