________________
96
Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
TIME IS NEITHER SOUL NOR MATTER NOR SPACE NOR THE PRINCIPLES OF MOTION AND REST: THEORIES OF PYTHAGORAS, OF THE Stoics, OF THE EPICUREANS, EXAMINED
Time is thus neither soul nor matter. Can we identify it with Space or Motion, Ākāśa or Dharma and, for the matter of that, with Adharma—the other three Reals of the Jaina metaphysics ? The early Greeks connected Time with Motion. According to Pythagoras, Time was the moving sphere itself. To this Pythagorean theory, some of the scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages objected on the ground that if Time was identified with the motion of the celestial sphere all the parts of Time would be together, since the parts of the sphere moved at once. The Stoic theory of Time was that it consisted in a determination of the extent of Motion while according to the Epicureans it was an accompaniment of Motion. Some of the Greek thinkers again went so far as to identify Time with Motion itself.:
We speak, for instance, of the past movement of the sun, its present movement and its future movement. This shows that Time as an external and independent Real is associated with the various movements of the sun and cannot be said to be generated by them.
I Brahmadeva refers to a similar class of thinkers in India who maintained that Time was generated by a moving thing. A Nimesa (time consisting in a twinkling of the eyes) was caused by the movement of the eyelids; timings by the water-clock were due to movments in water, movements of hands, all connected with the clock; a Day is caused by the moving sun and so on. Brahmadeva sets aside this theory by pointing out that the effect of material things in motion would bear the stamp of materiality. Food, for instance, which is the effect of rice boiled, has colour (black, white, etc.) smell (good, pleasant, etc.) touch (soft, hard, etc.) and taste (sweet, etc.). If time were nothing but an effect of material things in motion, it would have had colour and other attributes of matter. Akalanka-deva raises another objection to the theory of identifying Time with Motion. He says:
आदित्यगतेरिति चेन्न, तद्गतावपि तत्सद्भावात् । We cannot say that the movement of the sun generates Time; for Time is presupposed in the solar movements.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
