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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXVI, No. 2 October, 2001 bhava (notion-oi-otherness) is not non-existence simply." Although paryāya is not mentioned here specifically, it may be assumed that it is also a distinct aspect. The distinctness of these terms does not imply that they are exclusive of each other.
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Substance or reality is a multifaceted complexity. It is endowed with many qualities or attributes which in turn undergoes modifications, i.e. origination and destruction, with the sub-stratum remaining intact. Such a complex reality, viewed in itself and with reference to time and place, can be understood properly and thoroughly from different standpoints (nayas). That everying that exists is permanent is true from the standpoint of substance, that it is ever changing is true from the standpoint of modification. In fact, it is the substance which undergoes modifications. Here we have the genesis of the theory of manysideness or manifoldness of reality, i.e. anekāntavāda. According to this anekānta view, the same object can have plularity of attributes, viz. non-eternal and eternal, etc. i.e. apparently contradictory properties predicated of it, depending upon the perspective from which it is viewed. This is because reality is thought to be manifold, "and each entity has a manifold nature", consisting of "diverse forms and modes, of innumerable aspects."?
As B.K. Matilal remarks, there are two compatible notions of substance here: (1) substance as the core of change or flux, and (2) substance as the substratum of attributes.8 Acārya Kundakunda combines these two notions in these words:
"That which whilst it does not forsake its innate nature, is connected with origination, annihilation, and stability and which possesses qualities and modifications they call a substance.....
Existence is the innate nature of a substance, (connected as this is) with qualities and various modifications of its own, with origination, annihilation and stability at all times.9
According to Jainism, the nature of reality is dynamic and therefore the substance must evolve into qualities (gunas) and modifications (paryāyas) and must constantly undergo the triplicate stage of
6. Ibid.. 108 (Book II. 16).
7.
B.K. Matilal, The Central Philosophy of Jainism (Anekāntavāda) (Ahmedabad, L.D. Series 79, 1981), p. 25.
Ibid., p. 36.
Pravacanasāra, n. 1, 95-96 (Book II. 3-4).
8.
9.
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