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Reals in the faina Metaphysics
contrivances of modern science, such an almost immaterial point is manifestly indivisible. The abstract character of the Indian atom will be further clear from the Nyāya reply to the objection grounded on the Akāśa-vyatibheda plea. It is said that the Nyāya theory of Ākāśa as a substance which pervades all things cannot be reconciled with the theory of atoms. It is pointed out that if Ākāśa does not permeate the inside of an atom, its all-pervasive character becomes impossible; on the other hand, if it be held to permeate the inside of an atom, the atom cannot be said to be the ultimate plenum. It would be said that this objection would be valid and unanswerable if the atoms be held to be impenetrable substances. But the Naiyāyikā's steer clear of it by saying that the question of permeation of the interior of atoms by Akāśa does not arise, as the atoms have neither an interior nor any exterior. A compound product alone has an interior which is covered by an exterior and as the atom is not a compound product but a simple self-existent external real, it has no interior or exterior. अन्तर्वहिश्च कार्यद्रव्यस्य कारणान्तरवचनाद कार्य तद्भावः। ४।२।२०।
(FURETH) What else, then, can the Indian atom which has neither an inside nor an outside, nor any parts at all, be but the bare mathematical point although material in character ? JAINA DEFENCE OF THE ATOMIC THEORY
The Jaina philosophers refer exactly to the same abstract character of the atom by saying that it has neither an Adi i.e. beginning nor any Madhya i.e. middle nor any Anta i.e. end. Yet it cannot be looked upon as a non-existent product of imagination. Try, as we may, we can never fix upon anything like the beginning or the middle or the end of consciousness; yet, consciousness is an admitted reality. In the same way, an atom is a real, although we cannot speak of any forepart, middle part or the hind part of it'. The author of the Rājavārtika says:
__ 'आदिमध्यान्तव्यपदेशाभावादिति चेन्न विज्ञानवत्'। Indeed, the repudiation of the atomic character of impenetrability is unmis
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