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JAINA PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION
Union of Matter:
Molecules are formed in three different ways, as we have already indicated. Of these three ways, one is purely divisional. The remaining two are not so. Association or union plays an important part in determining their nature. Now, what is this union or association? How does matter unite? It is said that 'the pudgalas unite by virtue of the properties of 'snigdha' and 'rūkṣa' associated with them." 'Snigdha' and 'rūkṣa' are two kinds of touch. The former is known as smooth and the latter as rough.
The pudgalas cannot unite in an arbitrary way. There are certain conditions which restrict the freedom of association. They are as follows:
1. The ultimate elementary particles at the lowest energy-level of smoothness or roughness do not unite at all.
2. The ultimate elementary particles with equal degrees of smoothness or roughness and of the same kind cannot unite with an atom of their own kind. In other words, an electron would not combine with another electron or a positron with a positron if both the particles are at the same energy-level, but an electron can unite with a positron or vice versa under the same conditions.? This is one opinion. According to the other opinion, the paramāņus of opposite kinds cannot unite even if the degrees of smoothness or roughness are equal. Thus, while the latter view denies the possibility of union for all combinations of particles at the same energy-level, the former view recognises such a possibility if the union is between the particles of opposite kinds.
1. Tattvärtha-sūtra, V. 32.
2. Cosmology: Old and New, p. 216.
3. Svetambara view.
4. Digambara view.
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