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Substance and modification
The notion of Paryāya is peculiarly Jaina. In conformity with the nature of substance as permanence in mutability, Paryāya alludes to the variable aspect of a thing which is due to the external and internal inducements. Every quality transmutes its state every moment; and this mode of being is called Paryāya which is incessantly transforming itself into the next, though the quality as such is never abrogated. It is on this account alleged that substance is in a state of perpetual flux. However incessant and infinite the transformations may be, the underlying substantiality and permanency can never part with existence. Substance and Paryāya are not to be distinguished like two different things, for it is substance through qualities which because of its flowing nature attains the qualification of Paryāya. Substance and modes are neither exclusively identical nor exclusively different, but the relation is one of identity-in-difference, which. is in perfect harmony with the nonabsolutistic attitude upheld by the Jaina. Thus origination and destruction are applicable to Paryāyas and persistence to qualities along with substance.
Persistence, and the Distinction between Guņa and Paryāyas
The Jaina conception of persistence is defined as that which accounts for recognition in the form of the proposition “This is the same'.' This is consequent on the fact that the essential nature of substance or quality, notwithstanding. its mobility, is eternal and unchangeable.10 Thus the continuously flowing nature of quality does not annihilate the quality itself, which, if admitted, would fail to account for memory and in consequence run counter to all our daily commonplace, transactions. Continuance devoid of variability stands in direct antagonism to experience. Hence permanence is not the denial of change, but includes it as its necessary aspect. In the same way, qualities in the absence of modifications are incapable of being conceived. To distinguish Guna from
Jaina Mysticism and other essays
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