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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
Divākara and other logicians of the Jaina school, it consists in viewing a thing composed of various parts and aspects, as an undifferentiated abstract unity. Pūjya-pāda and some other logicians describe the Naigama in a different way. According to them, it consists in describing a thing or phenomenon not as it really or essentially is, but as it appears when something external is foisted on it. Thus when a man carrying wood, water and other raw materials is asked what he is doing and he answers, "I am cooking meals”, - his reply may be said to be based on Naigama Naya. He explains the wood, water, fire and other materials which he carries, not by giving an account of their true and essential natures but by referring them to the purpose for which they are carried. The Naigama Naya thus consists in a figura. tive description of its object. It is said to be of three modes. viz: the Vartamāna, the Bhūta and the Bhavya,-the Present, the Past and the Future. The example just given is. one of the first mode; because a series of present things are explained by a present purpose. The Bhūta Naigama is illustrated in the following way. If on the Dīpāvali day, one says, -
"This day is the day of the Lord's attainment of liberation," he may be said to have the Bhūta-Naigama point of view; because what he says is not strictly or literally true; the Lord Mahāvīra attained liberation centuries ago; the man's words figuratively express the fact that on the day on which the Lord attained his liberation was such and such a day of the week or of the month. This is the Naigama Naya of the Bhūta-Naigama type, because the characteristic of something past is transferred to something present. In the same manner, where the marks of a future phenomenon are figuratively applied to a present one, we have an instance of the Naigama Naya of the Bhavya type. For example, if a good man is called the Siddha or the Perfect One, it would be due to the Bhavya Naigama point of view. The good man is not yet a Perfect Being. He is called what he will be in some future time.
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