Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

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Introduction
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or as according to the Rationalists, it is what gives us a correct and clear idea of the thing under observation, is a matter of heated controversy among the epistemologists of the present day.
The mode of our approaching the Jaina theories in these lectures has been indicated above. It will be a comparative presentation of those theories, side by side, with the theories of the other schools of Indian thought and those of the philosophers of other lands, ancient or modern, as far as possible.
THE SYSTEM OF REALS: THE JAINA VIEW, AS OPPOSED TO THE ÇĀRVĀKA AND THE BUDDHIST AND AS COMPARED WITH THE VIEWS OF THE OTHER SCHOOLS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Now, as to the subject matter of the present lecturesthe system of Reals in the Jaina metaphysics. In opposition to the Çārvākas and the Buddhists, but in agreement with the other schools of Indian philosophy, the Jaina's recognise the Jiya or Soul as a real substance. Opposed to it are the Ajivas, the non-psychical substances which are five in number viz.--Pudgala or Matter, Ākāśa or Space, Kāla or Time and Dharma and Adharma, i.e. the principles or rather the conditions of Motion and Rest. Of these, the first three are recognised and discussed in other systems of Indian thought but the Jaina ontology is unique in admitting Dharma and Adharma as the two non-psychical real substances which condition the Motion and the Rest of the moving and the resting substances respectively, Lastly, we may here point out that the Jainas are generally looked upon as Atheists or non-believers in God. The accusation is true, if by God is meant an almighty Creator of the universe. But the Jaina's have a theory of God and this God or Gods of theirs are neither abstractions nor mere ideas but are Reals. The Jaina theory of God may conveniently be presented towards the end of these lectures on the Reals, as recognised in the Jaina metaphysics.