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Epistemology of Jainas
Classification of Reality We have understood the nature of reality, also known dravya,' with its two aspects of guna and paryāya. Now we come to its division. The Bhagavati, Sthānānga, Samavāyānga and Anuyogadvāra divide it into two2 : Jiva (soul) and ajiva (not-soul). We can compare this division with the Sankhya conception of Purusa and Praksti. But the two systems differ in the line of demarcation. According to Jainism the psychological functions of knowing, feeling and willing belong to Jiva, while according to Sānkhya they are the functions of Prakrti. We shall point out other differences between the two systems later on. Ajiva has been further divided into five dravyas, but, at present we are not concerned with that division.
There are four views regarding the division of reality. According to the materialistic view the whole universe is composed of matter only and ultimately there is no distinction between the conscious and unconscious existences. The very combination of certain material elements produces consciousness and there is no eternal entity known as the self. Modern scientist also holds the similar view, but it maintains that the primary stuff of which the world is composed, cannot be classed either as matter or as mind.
Russell says, "The stuff of which the world of our experience is composed, is, in my belief, neither mind nor matter; but, something more primitive than either. Both mind and matter seem to be composite, and the stuff of which they are compounded lies in a sense between the two, in a sense above them both, like a common ancestral·'. 3
1. Bhagavati 1.8.9: Tattvārtha 5.29 2. Bhagavaty 7.10.305; Sthānānga 251; Samavāya 149;
Anuyoga 141 3. Analysis of Mind p. 10
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