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The Jaina world of Non-living
A. The non-producibility of space cannot be proved because under the preferential modal standpoint over the substantive one, the space has origination and annihilation with respect to its own qualities of loss and gain in its individuality and alien-based accommodation qualities of accommodable living beings and mattergies. Alternatively, the origination and annihilation of space are observable. For example, if a person becomes omniscient at the last moment, it is the origination as an omniscient and annihilation as a non-omniscient. Now, the nonperceivable space by non-omniscient earlier is now perceivable by the omniscient. Thus, the space becomes originated due to perceptibility and annihilated due to non-preceptibility. If he does not percieve the nonproduced and non-annihilated space, he may not be omniscient. Thus, the middle term (reason) is unproved due to perceptibility of annihilation and origination of space.
Secondly, the illustration of ass's horns is devoid of the qualities of proposition and reason, as the 'ass's horn' is produced in the form of word and knowledge. It is originated with respect to these factors and therefore, it is existing also. A living being in the form of an ass dies and takes rebirth in the form of a cow with horns. The existence of ass's horns can be proved to be existing with respect to a single living being through its present and future birth. There is class-transition and class-existence. This leads to the fact that there is no characteristics of non-existence here in illustration with respect to proposition and reason. If it is accepted as unitarily annihilable, there will not be memory and, thus, it will lead to elimination of the ways of the world. 11. Q. It is opined that space is not a reality or entity. It is just absence of covering. A. This is not correct. As the mind and feeling etc. are said to be existing despite their non-materiality and coverlessness, similarly, space may also be called a really existing entity. 12. Q. It is postulated (by the Vaišeșikas) that the space is not inferred by its accommodation capacity, but it is inferred by its capacity to produce sound or words. This may be stated that sound is the quality of space as it is produced due to external cause of strikings by air. It is
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