New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

Author(s): Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers

Page 57

Axioms of Non-absolutism
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another respect. It is permanent in respect of its substance (which is eternal) and it is impermanent in respect of modes which originate and vanish.'16
This is true not only of the soul but of all other substances which are neither absolutely permanent nor absolutely impermanent, but both permanent and impermanent.
7. The Concomitance of Identity and Difference of
Substance and Modes
Knowledge is the defining characteristic of a soul.' Here the soul-substance and the knowledge-quality are given from the standpoint of difference.17 On the other hand, it has also been said that what is designated as the soul is the knower, or conversely what is designated as the knower is the soul.18 Such Agamic texts assert the identity of soul and knowledge.
The earth is a substance and a pot is its mode. A pot is made of earth and as it cannot be produced without it, it is identical with the earth. The earth cannot exercise the function of holding water, before it is transformed into a pot which, therefore, is functionally different from earth." A pot is a product and earth is its material cause; in other words earth is the substance of which the pot is a mode. The relation between the substance and its mode is identitycum-difference. It, therefore, follows that an effect and a cause are related through identity-cum-difference.
8. The Concomitance of One and Many
There are dialogues which throw light on the concomitance of one and many. The following dialogue is an illustration in point:
Somila: 'Are you one or many, O Lord?' Lord: 'I am one in respect of substance, O Somila. However, in respect of knowledge and intuition I am two. In respect of parts (constituents of a substance) I am immutable, eternal and unchanging. I am many in respect of the ever-changing phases of my consciousness. '20
The nature of the substance and modes entails the relationship of one and many, universal and particular, permanent and impermanent. The substance is one while the modes are many. The