Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

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

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The Principles of Motion and Rest
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these modern sciences. The Jaina theories of Dharma and Adharma may not give you the different laws of mass and energy, of inertia and motion but they undoubtedly supply the basis upon which an empirical science of these phenomena may be and as a matter of fact, has been built. The idealists, both ancient and modern, of all lands have denied the reality of Motion. Zeno of Elea, for instance, used the famous 'Achilles Argument' against the possibility or reality of Motion. On the other hand, there have been thinkers who have denied the reality of Rest. Heraclitus' theory about Fire as the primal substance which constituted the 'nature' of things, implied a ceaseless process or flux without rest, with 'a way downward' in which Fire is changed into things and 'a way upward' in which things are changed into Fire. Such one-sided theories, denying either the reality of Motion or that of Rest practically cut away the ground upon which the sciences of mass and motion can grow. It must be said to the credit of the Jaina theories of Motion and Rest that they certainly supply the metaphysical background for the empirical science about them.
The Jaina metaphysics, as we have seen, states in clearest terms that Motion and Rest of things are not caused by any agencies outside of the things but that they are due to the very nature of the things themselves. Aristotle, on the other hand, maintained that motions of things were due to the first unmoved Mover, an outside agency, after all. The Jaina theory of Motion is accordingly nearer to the present day mechanical and scientific view of the world.
The Jaina's, however, urge that although Motion and Rest are inherent in the nature of conscious and unconscious substances, accompanying causes are necessary for their actual full play. These attendant conditions are the two Reals, Dharma and Adharma, one helping motions and the other, rests. These are cosmic principles and although they do not actively cause the motions or rests of substances, they are nevertheless, their invariable and indispensable conditions. A fish, for instance, has the power of moving,