Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

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

Page 38

The Problem of Reals
23
showed that on analysis our knowledge of Objects would be found to consist in Words,
यावदर्थ वै नामधेयशब्दा तैरर्थसम्प्रत्ययः ।
and that accordingly Words and Objects must be held to be essentially connected. According to these thinkers, the Noumenal Sound is the ultimate and the only Reality. On the one hand, it is the cause of the Words and consequently, the Vāçaka or what expresses and signifies the Objects of our knowledge; on the other, it is the Vāçya or the Objects, signified by the Words. These Sabdikas tell us:
स्थानेषु विवृतं वायौ, कृतवर्णपरिग्रहा । वैखरीवाक् प्रयोक्तृणां प्राणवृत्तिनिबन्धना ॥ प्राणवृत्तिमतिक्रम्य, मध्यमा वाक् प्रवर्तते । अविभागानुपश्यन्ती, सर्वतः संहृतक्रमा ॥ eq6y5qìfaèara: genramagnfaat i तया व्याप्तं जगत् सर्वं ततः शब्दात्मकं जगत् ॥
वाक्यपदीय - टीका ।
"When the air passes to the proper places (e.g. the throat etc.) a man is enabled to utter a Word; such a Word is due to the operation of the vital principle (or the air which is in the bosom) and is called the Vaikhari Word. The Madhyamā Word is not dependent on the vital principle or air but consists in an internal vibration, so to say. Lastly, there is the Sūkṣma or subtle Sound which is eternal; it is self-luminous; it has no distinctions within itself (due to component letters etc.) and is indivisible; it is the Revelation. The universe is permeated by such Sound and hence is the world said to consist in Words".
JAINA CRITICISM OF THE SABDIKA THEORY
The Grammarian doctrine of the ultimate reality of Sound which underlies the world and all its objects, sounds somewhat similar to the Biblical dogma:—
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". The Jainas, on the contrary, reject this theory and point