Jainism And Its History

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology

Page 67

recognized. (The Sanskrit term Lokayata means to be known or to be recognized.) To explain the nature of motion the following four questions have been raised:
What is motion or Gati?
Who meets this motion?
What are the different forms of motion?
Why is it called Gati, motion?
Answering these questions about the motion Arhat Pārśva said:
(a) Any motion or change in existence in animate and in the inanimate beings is called Gati.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(b) Animate and inanimate (substances) encounter motion or change. This change is of four types: substantial, spatial, temporal and existential.
2.
(c) The existence of movement or change is also perennial with no beginning or end.
It is called Gati because it has motion.
(d) About the Karma philosophy and the moral teachings of Arhat Pārśva, it is thus recorded:
1. The animate beings possess an upward motion by their inherent (abstract) nature, while the matter has a downward motion by its intrinsic nature (inertia)
The animate beings reap the fruits of their deeds according to their (good or bad) Karmas or activities, while the changes in inanimate substances take place due to their dynamic nature.
The animate beings are activity-oriented; the inanimate substances are change oriented or dynamic in nature. The animate beings have two types of experience, of pain and pleasure. Only those who can get rid of violence and other evils including wrong
65 Jainism and its History