Jainism

Author(s): Vallabh Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabh Smarak Nidhi

Page 32

simply by the inherent powers of different substances without any intervention of an eternal God or Creator.
Substance has been defined as possessing some unchanging essential characters (gunas) and other changing modes (Parya-yas).2 0 The essential characters of a substance are found permanently in it and it is on account of them that the substance exists. Non-essential or accidental characters of a substance, are always subject to succeeding changes.
The world, according to Jainism, is chang. ing as well as unchanging. Jainism rejects both the theory of jmpermanence accepted by the Buddhists and the theory of absolute permanence expounded in the Vedanta system. It believes in permanence in change. From one point of view, substance is permanent and from another it is subject to change. That is why substance or reality is also defined as consisting of three elements; origination, decay and permanence.21
Parya-yas originate and decay but the gunas remain permanent. Consciousness, for
20 Tattvarthadhigama Sutra, 5. 38. 21 I bid,, 5. 30.