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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
ARISTOTLE'S VIEW OF TIME
Time, according to Aristotle, as we have seen, is only a determinant of Motion. The phenomenon of Motion has within itself distinctions of the various positions in Space, occupied by the moving point. These spatial positions which are time-points may be compared with Kālāņu's of the Jaina's. Like Kālāņu's, they are strictly distinct, occupying, as they do, different positions in the series; they can be numbered, summed, and counted, as Aristotle says. Past, present and future are dependent on the distinctive positions, in Space, of these time-points. Every time-unit, according to Aristotle, is a 'now'. In this respect, all the time-units are the same; and this is what explains our idea of the oneness of the Time, taken as a whole, while its continuity is accounted for by the continuity of Motion.
THE JAINA VIEW, HOW FAR AKIN TO ARISTOTLE'S VIEW
The Jaina's look upon Time as an independent Real, which is not connected with Space or Motion. Still, their doctrine is somewhat similar to that of Aristotle. Kālāņus are strictly discrete,
एकैकवृत्त्या प्रत्येकमगवस्तस्य निष्क्रियाः as the author of the Tattvārtha-sāra says. This characteristic of the particles of Time distinguishes it from the other five substances. The minute part of a substance is called Aņu and when these Anu's are combined inseparably, the substance constituted of them is called an 'Astikāya' or extended substance by the Jaina's. Jiva, Pudgala, Ākāśa, Dharma and Adharma are Astikāya's or extended substances because their minutest constituents are mixed up and inseparably combined with one another. Such is, however, not the case with Kāla. There are, no doubt, the Kālāņu's or the ultimate time-units but each of these Kālāņu's is strictly separate from each other. The minute parts of Time are never mixed up with one another. This strictly individual character of each Kālāņu has its psychological counterpart in the fact, already noted and admitted by
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