Nature of Time

Author(s): Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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76 SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
to the two aspects, namely vikṣepa and avaraṇa ascribed to Avidya by the later writers on Advaita. Time (kālasakti) is looked upon as the efficient cause (nimitta-käraṇa) or the causal agent (prayojaka-kartṛ) of the phenomenal world in its manifold phases of creation, preservation and dissolution.53 As Time, with the help of its two aspects, makes possible the temporal sequence in phenomenal world, superimpose on the Time itself the temporal sequence. Succession or simultaneity are the attributes of actions or objects and not of Time but we superimpose them on Time because it is Time that presents actions or objects in succession or simultaneity. Again, though Time is unitary we wrongly describe it as manifold after having identified it with the actions and movement which it controls. Similarly, our description of Time as long or brief is not true. Though it is constant and changeless, it appears to be of greater or shorter duration according as the series of actions brought about by it is long drawn out or cut short.56 Moreover, Time, in reality, is not threefold-past, present and future. When an action ceases, Time is described as past, when it is about to happen, it is said to be future; and when it continues to flow on as a current, it is called present. Thus the distinctions into past, future and present naturally pertain to actions, while they are. superimposed on Time.57 The two aspects pratibandha and abhyanujñā are eternal.58 Hence they co-exist. Co-existence of these two mutually opposite aspects would give rise to the contingency of conflict between. the two. The grammarians solve the difficulty by stating that there is a chronological co-existence yet there is a logical sequence between the two and cite a case of three gunas of Samkhya Prakṛti in their support.59
53 उत्पत्तौ च स्थितौ चापि विनाशे चापि तद्वताम् । निमित्तं कालमेवाहुर्विभक्तेनात्मना स्थितम् ॥
-Vakyapadiya, III. 9.3. 54 तथा च कार्यनिवेशितः फूलः काले समारोप्यते न वस तत्र भाविक इत्यर्थः । -- Helāraja's comm., p. 352.
पर्व यौगपचमपि... कार्यगतं काले समारोप्यते Ibid, p. 353.
55 ... एकरवेऽपि विभाविते नानात्वमुपाधिभेदनिहितम्... | Ibid, p. 344.
56 दूरान्तिकत्र्यवस्थानमध्वाधिकरणं यथा । चिरक्षिप्रव्यवस्थानं कालाधिकरणं तथा ॥
-Vakyapadiya, III. 9.47.
57 कियान्युपरमे भूतः सम्भावितायां क्रियायां भविष्यन् क्षणप्रवाहरूपेण वर्तमानरूपाय तस्यां मुख्य एवायम् । -Heläraja's comm., p. 350. Vakyapadiya, III. 9.30
58 प्रतिबन्धाभ्यनुशाभ्यां वृतियां तस्य शायती
59 Vakyapadiya, III. 9.52 and Helārāja's comm., p. 361.