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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
technically called "Balādhāna”. “Balādhāna” is opposed to active causation which is denied to Space."
The Jaina thinkers refer to the example of the senseorgan, Eye, in this connection. It is the soul that sees. The organ of sight has not the power of seeing. A dead man does not see although he has his organ of sight intact. Even a living man, if he has his attention diverted elsewhere, does not see, although he has eyes. All the same, however, the sense-organ of sight is the accompanying cause of our visual perception and visual perception is impossible without it. In the same manner, although substances occupy positions, of and by themselves, and although Space is in no way active in giving them accommodation, it is an accompanying cause of spatial occupation; nay, spatial occupation, is impossible without the spatial principle. Hence Space as a Real must be admitted.
DATA FOR THE JAINA INFERENCE ABOUT THE REALITY OF SPACE
We have seen how the philosophers of the Nyāya and other Vedic schools looked upon Sound as an attribute of Space and contended that from the phenomenon of Sound, inference about the reality of Space was to be made. The Jaina philosophers controverted this contention and pointed out that Sound had nothing to do with Space. What then are the data for the inference about Ākāśa according to the Jaina's ? Their answer to this question is essentially similar to that to the similar question about Dharma and Adharma. The Jaina's point out that although all things have the capacity to occupy spaces, the phenomena of their simultaneous occupation of spaces necessitates the hypothesis of a Real which serves as the common attendant
1 क्रियाहेतुत्वमेतेषां निस्कियाणां न हीयते। यतः खलु बलाधानमात्रमत्र विवक्षितम् ॥ ३९ तत्तवार्थसारः
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