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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
of the Pançāsti-kāya-samaya-sāra describing it as Nanavakāso-na-Sāvakāso. The atom is spatial as well as non-spatial. It is spatial because it has its existence and activities in points of space. Lest this should mean that the atom is therefore a substance having extensions in length, breadth and depth in space, care is taken in the next breath in describing it as non-spatial. The atom of the Jaina's is thus more like a mathematical point than an extended minute particle of the Greeks.
IMPENETRABILITY OF ATOMS CRITICISED
With respect to the doctrine of the impenetrability of atoms also, we find that the Indian theory is far in advance of the Greek theory. We have already said that the Vaibhāșika and the Sautrāntika schools of the Buddhist philosophy admitted the reality of material atoms. Their atomic theory, however, was subjected to unrelenting criticism by the Sūnyayādins and the Vijñānavādins, the nihilist and the subjective idealist sections of the Buddhist thinkers. Vasubandhu in his Vimśati-kārikā, for instance, contends
_ 'षटकेन युगपद् योगात् परमाणों: षडंशता ?' On account of the possibility of its simultaneous contact
with six other atoms, an atom must be said to have six parts. Saṁkara also raises the same objection against the atomic theory, when he says:- TTATHI qffesyn CATE TECAT FERT: षडष्टौ दश वा तावद्भिरवयवैः सावयवास्ते स्युः। सावयवत्वादनित्याश्चति । The objection may be explained in the following way. A gross material object which can be perceived is said to be made up of atoms. But are the atoms ultimate substances, the further subdivision of which is impossible? This cannot be. The combination of the atoms with one atom means that from the north, the south, the east, the west. the up and the down i.e., from the six (or more) directions of the given atom, six (or more) other atoms come and get themselves combined with it. What does this combination imply? The combination means that the given atom with which the six (or more) other atoms are combined has six or (more) parts in the six (or more) directions, with which
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