Jaina Psychology

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Page 23

JAINA PSYCHOLOGY Determinism (niyati). There are still others who hold the view that every event occurs as an Accident (yadycchā). There is no uniformity of sequence in the universe. The believers in the solitary reality of Matter conceive the whole universe as a combination of irreducible particles of a corporeal substance. TIME
Those who believe in Time as the determinant factor of the events that occur in the universe maintain that every incident occurs in Time, and hence, is determined by Time. Time is the only factor to explain each and every occurrence. The Atharva-veda refers to Time as the foundational factor of creation. The text runs as follows:
"Time, the steed, runs with seven reins (rays), thousand-eyed, ageless, rich in seed. The seers, thinking holy thoughts, mount him, all the beings (worlds) are his wheels.
With seven wheels does this Time ride, seven naves has he, immortality is his axle. He carries hither all these beings ( worlds). Time, the first god, now hastens onward.
A full jar has been placed upon Time; him, verily, we see existing in many forms. He carries away all these beings (worlds ); they call him Time in the highest heaven.
'He surely did bring hither all the beings (worlds ), he surely did encompass all the beings (worlds). Being their father, he became their son; there is, verily, no other force, higher than he......
'. ...... Time, the highest God, forsooth, hastens onward'.2
The supremacy of Time is recorded in the Mahābhārata also. It mentions that the root cause of worldly diversity is Time. All happiness and sufferings of the worldly creatures are wholly due to Time. Man suffers not because he commits sinful acts but because Time does so. The individual gains happiness not as a consequence of his own effort but as an endowment of Time. Time is all-pervasive and all-powerful. 3
i Svetāśvatara-upanişad, I, 2. 2 Hymns of the Atharva-veda (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLII),
XIX, 53-4. 3 Kälena savvam labhate manusyah.......
Sänti-parva, XXV; XXVIII; XXXII.