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AJIVA
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the external world; similarly the tactual sense organ 'communicates' to the individual whether the object “it is in touch with' is hard or soft. The other sense organs similarly make awareness of the other aspects of the world possible. It is in the light of this that the term 'experienced by the sense organs' should be understood. Since experience establishes contact with the outside world and matter as the object of experience reveals the nature to the perceiver, the significance of the Jaina definition of matter is that it makes the realistic position of the system unambiguously clear.
A second definition of matter we find in Jainism not only confirms the realistic position but, consistently with it, reveals also the dynamic conception of Reality. The definition is arrived at from the etymology of the compound word pudgala. The term pud refers to the process of combination and gala stands for dissociation. Matter is said to be that which undergoes modifications by combinations and dissociations. The exact significance of this definition can be gathered by analysing the Jaina view of the ultimate constituents of matter.
In determining the ultimate constituents of matter the method of division is helpful. When any object is divided, the parts obtained by division can be further divided but the process of division itself cannot be indefinitely continued ; for, in the process a position is reached when no further division is possible. This is truly the ultimate constituent of matter, — referred to by the term aņu or paramāņu (atom) – in Jaina philosophy. The implication of such a reference is that the atom itself is not produced by the combination of smaller constituents. The position is made more explicit in another source-book which states that "the atoms are produced only by division of matter; not by the process of union or combination.”2 The process of combination of the atoms gives rise to the molecules referred to as skandha in Jainism. It is the combination of molecules that is responsible for the different types of objects, possessing varying qualities. The main difference between the atoms and the molecules consists in the fact that the former are not further divisible and are only capable of combining to produce the latter ; the former is imperceptible and the latter is perceptible. The molecules, however are not merely capable of division, reducing
1 Sarvārthasiddhi, V. 25 2 Tattyārtha-Sutra, V. 27
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