Jaina Ontology

Author(s): K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 31

JAINA ONTOLOGY
To make the query more pointed let us recall that on the Jaina view (i) matter (pudgala ) is as much of a reality as souls ( jīva), (ii) the world ( loka) consists not only of matter and souls but also of a medium of motion ( dharma ), a medium of stoppage ( adharma ), a medium of location (akaśa ), a medium of occurrence (kala or addhāsamaya), (ii) the universe consists not only of the world but also of a not-world (aloka) surrounding the world. And a text which keeps silence as regards the nature of loka-aloka, that of dharma, adharma, ākāśa and kala, that of pudgala has failed to provide us with a complete picture of the Jaina world-view. By way of defence it can be said that even within the four corners of its own specific framework Prajñāpanā has found occasion to say things about loka, aloka, dharma, adharma, akaśa, kala and pudgala. As for example, in the chapter on alpa-bahutva that anomalous insertion of the item astikāya makes possible the treatment of five astikāyas and kala ; besides, the chapter separately treats pud gala. Similarly, the fifth and thirteenth chapters (viz. Višeşapada and Pariņāmapada) are devoted to a specification of the properties of souls as well as not-souls; (likewise the first chapter viz. Prajñāpañāpada enumerates the classes of souls as well as not-souls). And the tenth chapter (viz. Caramapada) so develops its content that what is mostly dealt with is the nature of loka-aloka on the one hand and pudgala on the other. Lastly, fifteenth chapter (viz. Indriyapada) incidentally (really, without any apparent reason) discusses the question whether loka, aloka, Jambūdvipa, etc, are or are not touched by dharma, adharma, akāśa, kala, etc. All this might be conceded and yet one might feel that it would have been better if independent chapters were devoted to a treatment of the nature of loka-aloka, pañcastikāya-cum-kāla, pudgala-- just as so many independent chapters are devoted to a treatment of the nature of soul,
The net content of the Bhagavati list of 23 Anuyogadvāras and the corresponding passages of Tattvārthasūtra :
So far as this aspect of the matter is concerned Bhagavati evinces comparatively more balanced attitude and it seems that a comparative neglect of the problems related to loka, aloka, pañcāstikaya-cum-kala, pudgala was a comparatively late phenomenon. Revealing in this connection is a list of topics-of-investigation to which Bhagavati resorts more than once ; (no trace of this list remains in the later texts). On two occasions this list appears as containing the following 23 items :11
(1) antarvarti akasa (=empty space lying in beween two regions of the
world) vāyu (=the layer of air occupying a part of the space lying in between two regions of the lower world)