Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

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

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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics Siddha is in a real sense the cause of his liberation. In the same way, Dharma, although it does not actually and actively push or move things, is a real cause or condition of their motion.
DHARMA AS ONE OF THE CONDITIONS OF ORDER IN THE WORLD
The Principle of Dharma does not extend beyond the Lokākāśa. This is the reason why the Emancipated Soul although it has the inherent capacity to rise upwards stops at the Siddhasilā, the top of the Universe, and cannot move in the Aloka or the Infinite Void Space beyond. The existence of Dharma within the confines of the Lokākāśa is one of the marks which distinguishes the Loka from the Aloka. In order that substances can exist in a world and there be order and system in it, there must be motion in it. It is thus that Dharma makes the Loka possible. At the same time, it should never be forgotten that Dharma is nothing more than the assisting cause of Motion. It is because substances move and stop by themselves and Dharma cannot move them when they are to stop that things do not continually fly in space. Dharma is thus only one of the conditions of the order or system in the world.
Dr. SEAL's view, EXAMINED
Dr. Brajendra Nath Seal seems to think that Dharma is more than "the accompanying cause of movement”. He says, “It is something more, it is the cause (or condition) of the system of movements, the fact of an order in the movements of Jīva and Pudgala.” He makes Dharma somewhat like the Pre-established Harmony of Leibnitz and bases his theory on the utterances of Prabhāvandra, TETIT TTTTarfarfa i'. It is doubtful, however, if Prabhāçandra really means Dharma to be such a cause of the order or system in the movements of things. Dharma is, no doubt, one of the causes of such an order; but for the purposes of the order or the system in the movements of things, other principles in addition to Dharma, are necessary. You cannot say that water alone is the cause of the well