Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

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

Page 66

The Principles of Motion and Rest
51
in material phenomena, because the matter or Pudgala in the universe is from the beginningless time continually shaping itself or being shaped in accordance with the needs and inclinations of the infinite number of Jiva's existing and struggling in the world. Thus it is that order or system in the movements of substances is primarily due to the active nature of the substances themselves and that the growth of this order is helped by the existence not only of Dharma but of Adharma, Akāśa etc., etc.
AKALANKA'S VIEW
The author of Tattvārtha-rāja-vārtika lays emphasis on the initiative taken by the substances in the matter of their moving or stopping and calls Dharma and Adharma simply Upagrāhaka. A blind man, he points out, takes the help of a stick, when walking; the stick does not make him move but only helps in his moving. If the stick were an active agent, it would have moved even senseless and sleeping men. The stick is thus an Upagrāhaka of the blind man's motion. Light, again, helps the power of vision; the eyes have the power of vision and light does not generate it. If light were an active agent, it would have made even senseless and sleeping men see. Light is thus an Upagrāhaka of the power of vision. “In the same way" he says, "souls and material substances move or stop of and by themselves. Dharma and Adharma are only Upagrāhaka or passive conditions of their motion and stoppage. They are not the Kartā or active generators of motion and rest. If they were Kartā or active agents, motion and stoppage would have been impossible”. He shows how Dharma and Adharma, if conceived as active principles, would make motion and rest impossible. Dharma and Adharma are cosmic principles, pervading the whole of the world through and through. Now, if Dharma were to move a thing, Adharma would have at once stopped it, thus making motion absolutely impossible in this world. In the same way if Adharma were to stop a thing, Dharma would have at once moved it, thus making stoppage absolutely impossible in this world.