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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics elements unite together are definite and constant. As we have said already, the early Greek physicists were ignorant of these laws of atomic combinations but in the mysterious Jaina doctrines of the Snigdha and Rūkşa, there seems to be a vague recognition of them.
NATURE OF ATOMIC COMBINATION
The next question that arises in connection with the combination of atoms is in respect of the nature of combination itself. What is meant by saying that one atom has combined with another? The early Greek Materialists, as we have seen, maintained that the atoms, hard particles as they were, simply impinged themselves upon one another. The doctrine of impenetrability of atoms has been exploded and as Maxwell points out, the atoms may coincide. It is also to be noted that if atoms be the hard, space-filling substances of Democritus, they become unfitted for the construction of perfect geometrical forms so that the Greek theory of atoms may be said to have failed to explain atomic combination. Boscovitch, on the other hand, endowed atoms with an ultimate force of repulsion. Two atoms said to come in contact with each other, do not actually do so. All that is meant is that as they are being brought closer and closer, a distance is at last reached at which the mutual repulsion becomes so great that their absolute coincidence cannot be effected by any amount of force. The combination of atoms, forming an extended thing thus does not mean their actual contact, it is really action at a distance, although to all intents and purposes, the atoms may be said to have come in contact and combined with each other.
VAIBHĀŞIKA DOCTRINES
In India, the Vaibhāşika's of the Buddhist school maintained that atoms have Samyoga i.e. are actually combined, when they form a gross body. There was, however, a difference of opinions among them as regards the nature of this combination. Bhadanta Subha Gupta is said to have held that there was an actual uniting together or mixing
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