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The General Conception of Knowledge
205
with the particular self there is another difficulty whick cannot be explained. The inherence is itself a separate category and bence one would have to explain the relation between consciousness and inherence. Why inherence should work on a particular consciousness? If there is another relation to unite consciousness and inherence the question can be put about the second relation also; ultimately it would lead to ad infinitum. If the first relation of inherence is self-united and does not require any other relation to be united with consciousness; where the same principle is not applied to the case of consciousness and soul also. They also can be accepted as self-united. The Naiyāyika generally cites the example of light, which illumines the object as well as itseif. Similarly, he says, inherence is capable of uniting the objects as well as itself. The soul and buddhi do not possess that capacity; because, they possess a different nature. The Jaina raises the same objection in the case of light also. If the light and illumination are two separate things, why the illumination is a function of light only and not that of other things. When we say natural capability, it cannot be explained without accepting a relation of identity between the two.
The relation of Inherence is defective :
As a matter of fact a substance without quality or action, and a quality or action without substance, are inconceivable. They are essential aspects of one and the same reality. The difference between them is not physical but logical. The Nyāya view that they are separate entities related by a third entity cannot explain the position. Sriharşa in his Khandanakhandakbādya has refuted the Nyāya theory of inherence very strongly. If an entity and its function are held as separate, the inherence and its function of uniting the two objects also will have separate existences. They will require a second inhe. rence for their unity. The Jaina holds that a substance and its quality are self-related in a tie of identity-in-difference, and no third category is required to unite them.
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