Jainism

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House

Page 31

16
JAINISM
before that jar is produced, you will say: Syānnästi, it is not. But if you think of it as substance, as Dravya, then it is always existing, and you will say of it: Syâdasti, it is; but you can say of it as Dravya and Paryaya, it is not and it is, and sum up the whole of it in a single phrase: Syādasti nästi; it is and it is not". Familiar line of reasoning enough. We can find dozens, scores and hundreds of illustrations of this way of looking at the universe, wearisome, perhaps, to the ordinary man, but illuminative and necessary to the metaphysician and the philosopher.
Then we come to the growth, or rather the unfolding, of the Jiva. The Jiva evolves, it is taught, by Reincarnation and by Karma; still, as you see, we are on very familiar ground. “The universe is peopled by manifold creatures who are in this Samsara, born in different families and castes for having done various actions. Sometimes they go to the worlds of the Gods, sometimes to the hells, sometimes they become Asuras, in accordance with their actions. Thus living beings of sinful 1 Report of the Search for Sanskrit MSS., by Dr Bhandarkar, p. 95.