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The General Conception of Knowledge
79
and karman as realities. They inhere in the category of existence. The other categories of sāmānya (universality), visesa (particularity), samavāya (inherence) and abhāva (non-existence) exist by themselves. They are not realities. Kaņāda calls the reality as artha and category as padārtha. The artha has objective existence. It is open to perception, sensual or supersensual. Padārtba is merely a logical conception. Praśastapādal observes : They (padārtbas) have their sole being within themselves and have the intellect as their indicator. They are not effects, not causes, have no generality or particularity, are eternal and are not expressible in the term 'thing'.2
According to Jainism the categories also are as objective as the realities. The only difference is that the former have no substantial existence. They are included in the very existence of their respective drayyas. As a matter of fact the first two categories of Jainas, i. e. Jiva and Ajiva, include the entire world of reality. The remaining seven categories are different phenomena related with the soul and its progress towards the final goal. They are not logical but ethical categories. The categories of the Vaišesika are important in the field of epistemology. We cannot conceive an object without them. But, the Jaina categories have no bearing on the problem of epistemology. They are related with the ethical position of the soul.
According to the Vaišesika, guna and karman inbere in the Dravya. According to Jainism they are related in the relation of identity-in-difference. The Vaiśesika holds them as separate entities; which inhere in the existence. According to Jainism they are not totally separate from dravya. Guna and paryāya along with dravya constitute the three obiective aspects of the same reality. According to Vaišeșika, the first moment of a dravya is free from guna and karman; according to Jainism they are the very ingredients of a reality.
1. Prasastapādabhāşya p. 19 2. Vaiśesikasūtra. 1.1 4 and 8 2.3.
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